La Espero

"La Espero" (English: "The Hope") is a poem written by Polish-Jewish oculist and doctor L. L. Zamenhof (1859–1917), the initiator of the Esperanto language. The song is often used as the anthem of Esperanto, and is now usually sung to a triumphal march composed by Félicien Menu de Ménil in 1909 (although there is an earlier, less martial tune created in 1891 by Claes Adelsköld, as well as a number of others less well-known). It is sometimes referred to as the hymn of the Esperanto movement.

Some Esperantists object to the use of terms like "hymn" or "anthem" for La Espero, arguing that these terms have religious and nationalist overtones respectively.