Down with the Despot

Ho, Brothers, of whatever name!
   Ho, Sisters, of whatever land!
By human wants and woes, the same, 
   By human loves linked hand to hand, 
Vow to redeem this home of ours, 
   And these beneath his arm who fall,—
From the pale despot's banded powers, 
   The death-crowned tyrant, Alcohol!
      Cry "Down with the Despot 
         Who withers the soul!
      And down with his minions, 
      His death-dealing minions,
Who pour our perdition from flagon and bowl!

We hate the tyrant who denies
   Our liberty of voice and vote, 
But cherish still that Lord of Lies 
   Who holds the rum-slave by his throat!
The crown of Kaiser and of King
   We've dashed against our mountain-wall ;
Then stooped to serve that vilest thing, 
   The imperial tyrant, Alcohol!
      Ho, down with the despot 
         Who withers the soul!
      And down with his minions, 
      His death-dealing minions,
Who pour our perdition from flagon and bowl!

Join heart to heart and hand to hand, 
   By all our hopes and all our woes,
To purify this sodden land
   Where deep and wide the fire-flood flows.
Redeem our homes from drunken blight,
   The fall'n from darker doom recall,
With one quick bolt of lightning smite
   The towering tyrant, Alcohol!
      Cry "Down with the Despot 
         Who withers the soul!
      And down with his minions, 
      His death-dealing minions,
Who pour our perdition from flagon and bowl!