This page has been validated.
200
ANNIVERSARY POEM.
XXXV.
List to their passionate voices: "Wake, oh wake!
Our rulers rule not well: their yokes are hard;
Their palaces the very day retard
With lengthened shadows, when the mornings break:
Are we but slaves that thus we crouch the knee?
Hearken! God thunders 'Ye are men—are free!'
And dynasties beneath his judgments quake."
List to their passionate voices: "Wake, oh wake!
Our rulers rule not well: their yokes are hard;
Their palaces the very day retard
With lengthened shadows, when the mornings break:
Are we but slaves that thus we crouch the knee?
Hearken! God thunders 'Ye are men—are free!'
And dynasties beneath his judgments quake."
XXXVI.
How long shall Poland faint and Hungary sleep?
How long shall sultan smite and emperor plot?
How long shall tears of blood earth's records blot?
How long shall Afric, scourged, submissive creep
And drag the brutal trader's shameful chains?
How long shall Northern blood wet Southern plains?
How long shall heroes sow and dastards reap?
How long shall Poland faint and Hungary sleep?
How long shall sultan smite and emperor plot?
How long shall tears of blood earth's records blot?
How long shall Afric, scourged, submissive creep
And drag the brutal trader's shameful chains?
How long shall Northern blood wet Southern plains?
How long shall heroes sow and dastards reap?
XXXVII.
O Power Supreme, thou knowest—thou alone!
But there are omens in the air and sky,
O Power Supreme, thou knowest—thou alone!
But there are omens in the air and sky,