Poems in Wartime - From Volume III., the Works of Whittier: Anti-Slavery - Poems and Songs of Labor and Reform by John Greenleaf Whittier
page 12 of 65 (18%)
page 12 of 65 (18%)
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What hope remains for thee and me."
Then Freedom sternly said: "I shun No strife nor pang beneath the sun, When human rights are staked and won. "I knelt with Ziska's hunted flock, I watched in Toussaint's cell of rock, I walked with Sidney to the block. "The moor of Marston felt my tread, Through Jersey snows the march I led, My voice Magenta's charges sped. "But now, through weary day and night, I watch a vague and aimless fight For leave to strike one blow aright. "On either side my foe they own One guards through love his ghastly throne, And one through fear to reverence grown. "Why wait we longer, mocked, betrayed, By open foes, or those afraid To speed thy coming through my aid? "Why watch to see who win or fall? I shake the dust against them all, I leave them to their senseless brawl." |
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