FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   401   402   403   404   405   406   407   408   409   410   411   412   413   414   415   416   417   418   419   420   421   422   423   424   425  
426   427   428   429   430   431   432   433   434   435   436   437   438   439   440   441   442   443   444   445   446   447   448   449   450   >>   >|  
d and smoking town. By Liberty's dishonored name, By man's lost hope and failing trust, By words and deeds which bow with shame Our foreheads to the dust, By the exulting strangers' sneer, Borne to us from the Old World's thrones, And by their victims' grief who hear, In sunless mines and dungeons drear, How Freedom's land her faith disowns! Speak out in acts. The time for words Has passed, and deeds suffice alone; In vain against the clang of swords The wailing pipe is blown! Act, act in God's name, while ye may! Smite from the church her leprous limb! Throw open to the light of day The bondman's cell, and break away The chains the state has bound on him! Ho! every true and living soul, To Freedom's perilled altar bear The Freeman's and the Christian's whole Tongue, pen, and vote, and prayer! One last, great battle for the right-- One short, sharp struggle to be free! To do is to succeed--our fight Is waged in Heaven's approving sight; The smile of God is Victory. 1844. TEXAS VOICE OF NEW ENGLAND. The five poems immediately following indicate the intense feeling of the friends of freedom in view of the annexation of Texas, with its vast territory sufficient, as was boasted, for six new slave States. Up the hillside, down the glen, Rouse the sleeping citizen; Summon out the might of men! Like a lion growling low, Like a night-storm rising slow, Like the tread of unseen foe; It is coming, it is nigh! Stand your homes and altars by; On your own free thresholds die. Clang the bells in all your spires; On the gray hills of your sires Fling to heaven your signal-fires. From Wachuset, lone and bleak, Unto Berkshire's tallest peak, Let the flame-tongued heralds speak. Oh, for God and duty stand, Heart to heart and hand to hand, Round the old graves of the land. Whoso shrinks or falters now, Whoso to the yoke would bow, Brand the craven on his brow! Freedom's soil hath only place For a free and fearless race, None for traitors false and base. Perish party, perish clan; Strike together while ye can, Like the arm of one strong man. Like that angel's voice sublime, Heard above a world of
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   401   402   403   404   405   406   407   408   409   410   411   412   413   414   415   416   417   418   419   420   421   422   423   424   425  
426   427   428   429   430   431   432   433   434   435   436   437   438   439   440   441   442   443   444   445   446   447   448   449   450   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Freedom

 

coming

 

thresholds

 

heaven

 
spires
 

altars

 

States

 
hillside
 

boasted

 
territory

sufficient

 
signal
 

rising

 

unseen

 
growling
 

citizen

 

sleeping

 

Summon

 

heralds

 

traitors


Perish

 

fearless

 

perish

 
sublime
 

strong

 

Strike

 
craven
 

tongued

 

annexation

 

tallest


Berkshire

 

Wachuset

 

falters

 

shrinks

 
graves
 

Victory

 
passed
 

suffice

 

dungeons

 
disowns

church

 

leprous

 
wailing
 

swords

 
sunless
 

failing

 
foreheads
 
smoking
 

Liberty

 
dishonored