Classic and Contemporary Poetry
PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S PROCLAMATION OF FREEDOM, by FRANCES ELLEN WATKINS HARPER Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: It shall flash through coming ages Last Line: Break the refulgent on the sight. Subject(s): Emancipation Movement & Proclamation; Antislavery Movement - United States | ||||||||
It shall flash through coming ages; It shall light the distant years; And eyes now dim with sorrow Shall be clearer through their tears. It shall flush the mountain ranges; And the valleys shall grow bright; It shall bathe the hills in radiance, And crown their brows with light. It shall flood with golden splendor All the huts of Caroline, And the sun-kissed brow of labor With lustre new shall shine. It shall gild the gloomy prison, Darkened by the nation's crime, Where the dumb and patient millions Wait the better coming time. By the light that gilds their prison, They shall seize its moldering key, And the bolts and bars shall vibrate With the triumphs of the free. Like the dim and ancient chaos, Shrinking from the dawn of light, Oppression, grim and hoary, Shall cower at the sight. And her spawn of lies and malice Shall grovel in the dust, While joy shall thrill the bosoms Of the merciful and just. Though the morning seemed to linger Over the hill-tops far away, Now the shadows bear the promise Of the quickly coming day. Soon the mists and murky shadows Shall be fringed with crimson light, And the glorious dawn of freedom Break the refulgent on the sight. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...GARRISON by AMOS BRONSON ALCOTT WENDELL PHILLIPS by AMOS BRONSON ALCOTT THE DEATH OF SLAVERY by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT BOSTON HYMN; READ IN MUSIC HALL, JANUARY 1, 1863 by RALPH WALDO EMERSON FIFTY YEARS (1863-1913) by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL HENRY WARD BEECHER by CHARLES HENRY PHELPS JOHN BROWN OF OSAWATOMIE [OCTOBER 16, 1859] by EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN AMERICA by JAMES MONROE WHITFIELD A DOUBLE STANDARD by FRANCES ELLEN WATKINS HARPER AN APPEAL TO MY COUNTRYWOMEN by FRANCES ELLEN WATKINS HARPER |
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