The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1893-12-20

When n deed is done for Freedom, through
the broad earth's aching breast
Runs thrill of Joy prophetic, trembling on
And the slave, where'er he covers, feels the
soul within him climb
To the awful verge of manhood, as the energy
OF a century bursts full-blossomed on the
thorny stem of time.
Through the walls Of hut and palace shoots
the instantaneous throe,
When the travail of the Ages wrings earth's
systems TO and fro;
Nation wildly looks at nation, standing with
mute lips apart,
And glad Truths yet mightier man-child
leaps beneath the Futures heart.
So the Evils triumph sendeth, with terror
and chill,
Under continent to continent, the sense of
coming III,
And the slave, where'er he covers, feels his
sympathies with God
In hot tear-drops ebbing earthward, to be
- drunk up by the sod
Till corpse crawls round unburied, delving
in the nobler clod.
For mankind are one in spirit. and an instinct
bears along,
Round the esrth's electric circle, the swift
fash of right or wrong;
Whether conscious or unconscious, yet Hu
manity's vast frame
gush of JOY or shame
In the gain or loss of one race all the rest have
equal claim.
Once to every man and nation comes the mo-
ment to decide,
In the strife Of Truth with Falsehood. for the
Some great cause, Gods new Messiah offering
each the bloom or blight,
Parts the goats upon he left hand, and the
sheep upon the right,
And the choice goes BY forever twixt that
darkness and that light.
thou shalt stand,
Ere the Doom from its worn sandals shakes
the dust against our land
Though the cause of Evil prosper, yet It's
Truth alone is strong,
And, albeit she wander outcast now, / see
around her throng
Troops Of beautiful, tall angels TO enshield
her from all wrong.
Backward look across the ages and the beacon
That, like peaks Of some sunk continent, jut
through Ublivion's sea;
Not an ear in court or market for the low fore
Of those Crises, Gods stern winnowers, from
~ whose feet earth's chat must fly;
Never shows the choice momentous till the
judgment hath passed by
Careless seems the great Avenger; history's
pages but record
One death grapple in the darkness 'twixt old
systems and the Word;
Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever
on the throne
Yet that scafTold sways the Future, and, be-
hind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping
watch above His own.
Then to side with Truth is noble when we share
her wre ched crust,
Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and tits
prosperous to be just;
Then 1t is the brave man chooses, while the
coward stands aside,
Doubling in his abiect spirit, till the Lord is
crucitied,
And the multitude make virtue of the faith
they had denied.
For Humanity sweeps onward: where to-day
the martyr stands,
On the morrow crouches Judas with the silver
in his hands;
Far in front the cross stands ready and the
cracking fagots burn,
While the hooting mob of yesterday in silent
To CLEAN up the scattered ashes into History's
golden urn,
They have rights who dare maintain them:
we are traitors to our sires,
Smotherng in their holy ashes Freedoms new
lit altar-fres;
Shall we make their creed our TAILOR? Shall
we, in our haste to slay,
From the tombs of the old prophets steal the
funeral lamps away
10 hight up the martyr-fagots round the
prophets of today
New occasions tea h new duties: Time makes
ancient good uncouth;
They must upward still, and onward, who
woul keep abreast of Truth;
Lo, before US CLEAN our camp-fres. we our
,elves must Iilgrims be-
Launch our Mayll0wer, and steer boldly
through the desperate winter sea,
Nor attempt the futures portal with the
Past's blood-rusted key.
K. LOWELL.
December 1915.