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Table of Contents: Cover Page Dedication Introduction "America" "Christmas Hymn" "Lines on the Death of J. Quincy Adams" "To Cinque" "New Year's Hymn" "To A.H." "Love" "How Long" "The Arch Apostate" "The Misanthropist" "A Hymn" "Yes! strike again that sounding string" "To -------" "Prayer of the Oppressed" "To S.A.T." "Delusive Hope" "To M.E.A." "A Hymn" "Self-Reliance" "Ode for the Fourth of July" "Midnight Musings" "Ode to Music" "Stanzas for the First of August" "The North Star" (text of all poems) |
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How long, oh gracious God! how long Shall power lord it over right? The feeble, trampled by the strong, Remain in slavery’s gloomy night. In every region of the earth, Oppression rules with iron power, And every man of sterling worth, Whose soul disdains to cringe, or cower Beneath a haughty tyrant’s nod, And, supplicating, kiss the rod, That, wielded by oppression’s might, Smites to the earth his dearest right, The right to speak, and think, and feel, And spread his uttered thoughts abroad, To labor for the common weal, |
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Responsible to none but God --- Is threatened with the dungeon’s gloom, The felon’s cell, the traitor’s doom; And treacherous politicians league With hireling priests, to crush and ban All who expose their vile intrigue, And vindicate the rights of man. How long shall Afric raise to thee Her fettered hand, oh Lord, in vain? And plead in fearful agony, For vengeance for her children slain. I see the Gambia’s swelling flood, And Niger’s darkly rolling wave, Bear on their bosoms stained with blood, The bound and lacerated slave; While numerous tribes spread near and far, Fierce, devastating, barbarous war --- Earth’s fairest scenes in ruin laid To furnish victims for that trade, Which breeds on earth such deeds of shame As fiends might blush to hear or name. I see where Danube’s waters roll, |
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And where the Magyar vainly strove, With valiant arm, and faithful soul, In battle for the land he loved --- A perjured tyrant’s legions tread The ground where Freedom’s heroes bled, And still the voice of those who feel Their country’s wrongs, with Austrian steel. I see the "Rugged Russian Bear" Lead forth his slavish hordes, to War Upon the right of every State Its own affairs to regulate: To help each Despot bind the chain Upon the people’s rights again, And crush beneath his ponderous paw All Constitutions, rights and law. I see in France, oh, burning shame! The shadow of a mighty name, Wielding the power her patriot bands Had boldly wrenched from kingly hands, With more despotic pride of sway Than ever monarch dared display. The Fisher, too, whose world-wide nets |
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Are spread to snare the souls of men, By foreign tyrant’s bayonets Established on his throne again, Blesses the swords still reeking red With the best blood his country bore, And prays for blessings on the head Of him who wades through Roman gore. The same unholy sacrifice, Where’er I turn, bursts on mine eyes, Of princely pomp, and priestly pride, The people trampled in the dust, Their dearest, holiest rights denied, Their hopes destroyed, their spirit crushed; But when I turn the land to view, Which claims, par excellence, to be the refuge of the brave and true, The strongest bulwark of the free, The grand asylum for the poor And trodden-down of every land, Where they may rest in peace secure, Nor fear th’ oppressor’s iron hand --- Worse scenes of rapine, lust and shame, |
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Than e’er disgraced the Russian name, Worse than the Austrian ever saw, Are sanctioned here as righteous law. Here might the Austrian’s Butcher* make Progress in shameful cruelty, Where women-whippers proudly take The meed and praise of chivalry. Here might the cunning Jesuit learn --- Though skilled in subtle sophistry, And trained to persevere in stern, Unsympathizing cruelty, And call that good, which, right or wrong, Will tend to make his order strong --- He here might learn from those who stand High in the gospel ministry, The very magnates of the land In evangelic piety, That conscience must not only bend To every thing the Church decrees, But it must also condescend, When drunken politicians please |
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To place their own inhuman acts Above the "higher law" of God, And on the hunted victim’s tracks Cheer the malignant fiends of blood; To help the man-thief bind the chain Upon his Christian brother’s limb, And bear to Slavery’s hell again The bound and suffering child of Him Who died upon the cross, to save Alike, the master and the slave. While all th’ oppressed from every land Are welcomed here with open hand, And fulsome praises rend the heaven For those who have the fetters riven Of European tyranny, And bravely struck for liberty; And while from thirty thousand fanes Mock prayers go up, and hymns are sung, Three millions drag their clanking chains, "Unwept, unhonored and unsung;" Doomed to a state of slavery Compared with which the darkest night |
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Of European tyranny, Seems brilliant as the noonday light; While politicians, void of shame, Cry, this is law and liberty, The clergy lend the awful name And sanction of the Deity, To help sustain the monstrous wrong, And crush the weak beneath the strong. Lord! thou hast said, the tyrant’s ear Shall not be always closed to thee, But that thou wilt in wrath appear, And set the trembling captive free; And even now dark omens rise To those who either see or hear, And gather o’er the darkening skies The threatening signs of fate and fear. Not like the plagues which Egypt saw, When rising in an evil hour, A rebel ‘gainst the "higher law," And glorying in her mighty power --- Saw blasting fire, and blighting hail, Sweep o’er her rich and fertile vale, |
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And heard on every rising gale, Ascend the bitter, mourning wail; And blighted herd, and blasted plain, Through all the land the first-born slain, Her priests and magi made to cower In witness of a higher power, And darkness, like a sable pall, Shrouding the land in deepest gloom, Sent sadly through the minds of all Forebodings of approaching doom. What though no real shower of fire Spreads o’er this land its withering blight, Denouncing wide Jehovah’s ire Like that which palsied Egypt’s might; And though no literal darkness spreads Upon the land its sable gloom, And seems to fling around our heads The awful terrors of the tomb: Yet to the eye of him who reads The fate of nations past and gone, And marks with care the wrongful deeds By which their power was overthrown, |
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Worse plagues than Egypt ever felt Are seen wide-spreading through the land, Announcing that the heinous guilt On which the nation proudly stands, Has risen to Jehovah’s throne And kindled his avenging ire, And broad-cast through the land has sown The seeds of a devouring fire. Tainting with foul, pestiferous breath The fountain-springs of moral life, And planting deep the seeds of death, And future germs of deadly strife; And moral darkness spreads its gloom Over the land in every part And buries in a living tomb Each generous prompting of the heart. Vice in its darkest, deadliest stains, Here walks with brazen front abroad, And foul corruption proudly reigns Triumphant in the Church of God; And sinks so low the Christian name, In foul, degrading vice, and shame, |
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That Moslem, Heathen, Atheist, Jew, And men of every faith and creed, To their professions far more true, More liberal both in word and deed, May well reject, with loathing scorn, The doctrines taught by those who sell Their brethren in the Saviour born, Down into slavery’s hateful hell; And with the price of Christian blood Build temples to the Christian’s God; And offer up as sacrifice, And incense to the God of heaven, The mourning wail, and bitter cries, Of mothers from their children riven; Of virgin purity profaned To sate some brutal ruffian’s lust, Millions of Godlike minds ordained To grovel ever in the dust; Shut out by Christian power and might, From every ray of Christian light. How long, oh Lord! shall such vile deeds Be acted in thy holy name, |
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And senseless bigots, o’er their creeds, Fill the whole earth with war and flame? How long shall ruthless tyrants claim Thy sanction to their bloody laws, And throw the mantle of they name, Around their foul, unhallowed cause? How long shall all the people bow As vassals of the favored few, And shame the pride of manhood’s brow, Give what to God alone is due --- Homage, to wealth, and rank, and power Vain shadows of a passing hour? Oh for a pen of living fire, A tongue of flame, an arm of steel, To rouse the people’s slumbering ire, And teach the tyrant’s heart to feel. Oh Lord! in vengeance now appear, And guide the battles for the right, The spirits of the fainting cheer, And nerve the patriot’s arm with might; Till slavery banished from the world, And tyrants from their powers hurled, |
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And all mankind from bondage free, Exult in glorious liberty.
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