Poems (Kennedy)/Manumission
For works with similar titles, see Manumission.
MANUMISSION
TODAY we are bound in the shambles
Nor dream of a swift transition,
Yet tomorrow may bring to us, toiling,
The hour of manumission.
Nor dream of a swift transition,
Yet tomorrow may bring to us, toiling,
The hour of manumission.
Today we are stranded in shallows,
Cast up in a ruck of the lea,
But tomorrow, with lift of the flood-tide,
We may sail the limitless sea.
Cast up in a ruck of the lea,
But tomorrow, with lift of the flood-tide,
We may sail the limitless sea.
Today we grope low in the valley
'Mid silence and darkness forlorn;
Tomorrow, high up on the hill top,
We'll sing the clear hymn of the dawn.
'Mid silence and darkness forlorn;
Tomorrow, high up on the hill top,
We'll sing the clear hymn of the dawn.
And no man may shun the disaster,
And no man may speed his release;
For today is but life and its heartache,
Tomorrow, God's infinite peace.
And no man may speed his release;
For today is but life and its heartache,
Tomorrow, God's infinite peace.