O joy to yield, to bend my fierce wild will
To the strange freedom that submission brings.
Surrender makes a space that first is still
Then fills, O glory, with the sound of wings.
O odd dichotomy! that I rejoice
To live and die in cherished liberty,
And that my liberty admits the choice
To bow myself where'er it pleases me.

Gold cannot buy, force cannot earn, esteem;
I worship where my heart delights to be.
No one but I can choose what thrills to me
And tells me, this yes this, is all my dream:
Here, here I lay my sword, my battered shield;
Here place my heart, and here rejoice to yield.