Feelings of a Noble Biscayan at One of Those Funerals
Feelings of a Noble Biscayan at One of Those Funerals - meaning Summary
Resistance, Inheritance, and Shame
The poem voices a Biscayan speaker urging his people to resist oppression and reclaim ancient freedom. Public mourning and ceremonial displays are condemned as hollow if the community accepts subjugation. The speaker warns that passive resignation will corrupt moral innocence, bring guilt upon future generations, and render symbolic gestures meaningless. It frames political liberty as essential to communal dignity and the ethical inheritance passed to children.
Read Complete AnalysesYET, yet, Biscayans! we must meet our Foes With firmer soul, yet labour to regain Our ancient freedom; else 'twere worse than vain To gather round the bier these festal shows. A garland fashioned of the pure white rose Becomes not one whose father is a slave: Oh, bear the infant covered to his grave! These venerable mountains now enclose A people sunk in apathy and fear. If this endure, farewell, for us, all good! The awful light of heavenly innocence Will fail to illuminate the infant's bier; And guilt and shame, from which is no defence, Descend on all that issues from our blood.
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