Blow ye the trumpet, gather from afar...
Written, on hearing of the outbreak of the Polish Insurrection.
Blow ye the trumpet, gather from afar... - context Summary
Composed After the 1831 Uprising
Tennyson composed this poem in 1831 on hearing of the Polish Insurrection. It is a rousing address urging Poles to rise against Russian domination, calling them "the boldest of the bold" and invoking historical figures and victories—Piast, Sobieski, Zamoysky, Boleslas—to inspire national resistance. The poem contrasts past Polish strength with the expanding power of the Czar and frames the uprising as a duty to reclaim former freedom.
Read Complete AnalysesBlow ye the trumpet, gather from afar The hosts to battle: be not bought and sold. Arise, brave Poles, the boldest of the bold; Break through your iron shackles—fling them far. O for those days of Piast, ere the Czar Grew to this strength among his deserts cold; When even to Moscow’s cupolas were rolled The growing murmurs of the Polish war! Now must your noble anger blaze out more Than when from Sobieski, clan by clan, The Moslem myriads fell, and fled before— Than when Zamoysky smote the Tartar Khan, Than earlier, when on the Baltic shore Boleslas drove the Pomeranian.
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