“Stanzas on
Freedom"
By James
Russell Lowell
Men! whose boast it is that ye
Come of fathers
brave and free,
If there breathe on earth a slave,
Are ye truly free and brave?
If ye do not feel the chain,
When
it works a brother’s pain,
Are ye not base slaves indeed,
Slaves unworthy to be freed?
Women! who shall one day bear,
Sons to breathe
New England
air,
If ye hear, without a blush,
Deeds to make the roused blood rush
Like red lava through your veins,
For
your sisters now in chains—
Answer! are ye fit to be
Mothers of the brave
and free?
Is true Freedom but to break
Fetters for our
own dear sake,
And, with leathem hearts, forget
That we owe mankind a debt?
No! true Freedom is to share
All
the chains our brothers wear,
And, with heart and hand, to be
Earnest to make others free!
They are slaves who fear to speak
For the
fallen and the weak;
They are slaves who will not choose
Hatred, scoffing, and abuse,
Rather than in silence shrink
From the truth they needs must think;
They are slaves who dare not be
In the right with two or three.
________________________________________________________
Free Labor
I wear an easy garment,
O'er it no toiling slave
Wept
tears of hopeless anguish,
In his passage to the grave.
And from its' ample folds
Shall rise no cry to God,
Upon
its warp and woof shall be
No stain of tears and blood.
Oh, lightly shall it press my form,
Unladened with a sigh,
Shall not 'mid its rustling hear,
Some sad despairing cry.
This fabric is too light to bear
the weight of bondsmen's
tears,
I shall not in its texture trace
the agony of years.
Too light to bear a smother'd sigh,
From some lorn woman's
heart,
Whose only wreath of household love
Is rudely torn apart.
Then lightly shall it press my form,
Uburden'd by a sigh;
from its seams and folds shall rise,
No voice to pierce the sky,
And witness at the throne of God,
In language deep and strong,
That
I have nerv'd Oppression's hand,
For deeds of guilt and wrong.
