214
THE VIRGINIA SCAFFOLD.
For the man nor courts nor prisons can annoy, another morn!
And from distant climes and nations men shall Westward gaze and say,
"He who perilled all for Freedom on the scaffold dies to-day."
And from distant climes and nations men shall Westward gaze and say,
"He who perilled all for Freedom on the scaffold dies to-day."
Never offering was richer, nor did temple fairer rise
For the gods serenely smiling from the blue Olympian skies;
Porphyry or granite column did not statelier cleave the air
Than the posts of yonder gallows with the crossbeam waiting there;
And the victim, wreathed and crowned, not for Dian nor for Jove,
But for Liberty and Manhood, comes, the sacrifice of Love.
For the gods serenely smiling from the blue Olympian skies;
Porphyry or granite column did not statelier cleave the air
Than the posts of yonder gallows with the crossbeam waiting there;
And the victim, wreathed and crowned, not for Dian nor for Jove,
But for Liberty and Manhood, comes, the sacrifice of Love.
They may hang him on the gibbet; they may raise the victor's cry
When they see him darkly swinging like a speck against the sky;—
Ah! the dying of a hero that the right may win its way,
Is but sowing seed for harvest in a warm and mellow May!
Now his story shall be whispered by the firelight's evening glow,
When they see him darkly swinging like a speck against the sky;—
Ah! the dying of a hero that the right may win its way,
Is but sowing seed for harvest in a warm and mellow May!
Now his story shall be whispered by the firelight's evening glow,
