Muse! thy thrilling numbers dart Thro his ear, and thro his heart: Chide the youth who holds his stay, Far from Freedom's band away. Hanging woods and fairy streams, Inspirers of poetic dreams, Must not now the soul enthrall, While dungeons burst, and despots fall. Shall peals of village bells prevail Floating on the Summer gale, While the Tocsin sounds afar, Breathing arms, and glorious War? Think, when woods of brownest shades Open bright to sunny glades; Such the gloom, and such the light, Of Freedom's noon, and Slavery's night. Harps of Mona! sound once more, With strong vibrations shake the shore, Ne'er did your solemn chords relate, Eventful scenes so big with fate. Now stretched at hoary Snowden's base, Hide in shades thy long disgrace, And blush that Freedom's child should be, Far from Freedom's jubilee. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: MINERVA JONES by EDGAR LEE MASTERS THE MOUNTAIN WHIPPOORWILL (A GEORGIA ROMANCE) by STEPHEN VINCENT BENET THE INCORRIGIBLE DIRIGIBLE by HAYDEN CARRUTH INDEPENDENCE DAY, 1956, A FAIRY TALE by JAMES GALVIN STREET-CRIES: 2. THE SHIP OF EARTH by SIDNEY LANIER TO OUR MOCKING-BIRD; DIED OF A CAT, MAY, 1878 by SIDNEY LANIER THE SLAVE TRADE: VIEW FROM THE MIDDLE PASSAGE by CLARENCE MAJOR |