Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1866-06-27
poetrp.
The Death OF slavery.
~rwIILrAx CULLEN sRYASr.

o Tho. rre., wrour, that, through he siow-paced
years,
pids, hold thy millions fet,ered, AMI ddst vielA
The scourge that drove the I.horer to the field
And look with stony eyes on human tears,
Thy cruel ret IN is o'er;
Thy boudmen crouch on more
IN terror At the menace Of thine eye;
For He who parks bounds of guilty POWER.
Long suffering, hath heard the captive's.cry,
And tou-hed his shackles at the appointed hour,
And To- hey fall, aud he whose limbs they CALLED
Sands IN his NATIVE nanhood disenthralied.
shout Of Joy from the redeemed
Ten Thousand hsmIets swell the hymn OF thanks;
Our rivers roIi eyuIting aud their banks
send up hosannss 10 the armament.
Fields, where the bondnan's toll
No more shall trench the soil,
Seem now TO bAsk IN serener day,
The meadow birds sing sveeter and the airs
OF Heaven with mere esressins sof ness play,
Welcoming 20 liberty Ike he rs
gIo- clothes The lard from TO sea,
For tie grea, land and all its coasts free
Within that lani vert tho1 ,n,hroned Of late,
And they by WHOM. the nations laws were mad,
And they -ao filed is iIdgment-seas, obeyed
Thy msntst-, lid a the will Of
Fierce at thy right hand,
with gesture % command.
Gave forth the word that none NIGH; eainsay;
And grave and reverend ones, ~he love thee Lot,
shraak from thy presence. and in blank dismay,
Clicked down, unurtered, tn rebeIIious thought;
While mesner covrras, mingled with thy rain,
Proved from the book o. God, thy right to reien.
Great thou q, and feared from shore shore,
The wrath Of God o'ertook thee in thy Pridei
Thou sit;'st CHASTITY shadow; by thy side
Thy strong arms hang nerveIess evermore.
And they who quaiIed but now
Before thy lowering brow
devote thy memory and shame,
And -cof At the pale. po ~erIess thing thou ar.
And they who ruled N thine imperial name,
subduea, aud standing suiIenIy apart,
ScovI at The hands that overtnrew thy reign.
And shattered at blow the prisoners chain.
Well was thy doom deserved thou diIst not spare
Life's tend,r-st tes. cruelty didst part
Husband and wife, and from the mothers heart
Dsdst her ca Idren, deaf shrek AMI ptsysr:
Thy in ner lair becsne
The haunt Of guilty sham;
Thy lash opped blf od the murderer, at thy side,
Show ed his red hands, feared the cencs due
Thou didst earth with crimes, and, far vide
harvest Of unoounted mi.eries grew,
Until the measure OF thy sins at last
Was full. and hen the avenFing bolt
60 then accused OF God, and take thy place
Win bsIefuI Memories OF the elder time,
With many wasting pest, and nameless crime,
snd bloody shat thinned the human race
With the Black Death, whose
Through wailing cities lay,
Worship Of Molocb, tyrannies that bsilt
The Pyramids and cruel creeds that taught
To avenge = fancied guilt by deeper guilt
Death q The etaEe those tbs 4 hold tbs
Lo, the foul hsntons, silent in the gloom
OF the tovn ages, part yield th.e room.
the better years that hasten BY
Garry thee back into that shadowy p,s,
where. in the dusty spaces void md vast,
The graves Of those whom thou hast murdered lie.
The slave pen through whose door
Thy victims pass more,
Is there, and there sh, II the grim block remain
AT which the slave sold; while at thy feet
soourges and engines Of restraint and pain
Mould-r and rust by thine eternal seat.
There, mid the symbols that proclaim thy crimes,
Dwell tho-, warning to the coming times
Atlantic for JSip-