Oh, Great White Czar of Russia, who hid your face and ran,
You-ve flung afar the grandest chance that ever came to man!
You might have been, and could have been-ah, think it to your shame!-
The Czar of all the Russias, in fact as well as name.

-The Father of your People,- your children called to you
To do the things to save them which only you could do.
Your soldiers whipped their faces-the trodden snow is red
With the blood of men and women; and the blood is on your head!

I saw in dreams a monarch, of his power all unaware,
Step down amongst his people from off his palace stair:
The Grand Dukes shrank and trembled, the traitors fled afar-
Through all the mighty Russias rang the order of the Czar!

You might have journeyed freely, wherever path is made,
Through all your vast dominions, alone and unafraid;
And, in the eyes of subjects, the cultured and the rude,
Have seen, instead of hatred, the tears of gratitude.

Oh, little Czar of Russia, a weak man and a fool,
At the mercy of your nobles-their prisoner and their tool-
Your freedom and your people-s and their love was to be won:
Ah, me! it would have been a deed a coward might have done.

Yet we who know so little might say one word for you:
How many in our weakness have lost our kingdoms, too!
And facing death and exile, when all the world seemed black,
How many in our after-strength have won our kingdoms back!