To a Foiled Revolter or Revoltress.
1.
Courage! my brother or my sister!
Keep on! Liberty is to be subserved, whatever occurs;
That is nothing, that is quelled by one or two failures, or any number of failures,
Or by the indifference or ingratitude of the people, or by any unfaithfulness,
Or the show of the tushes of power—soldiers, cannon, penal statutes.
2.
What we believe in waits latent forever through Asia, Africa, Europe, North and South America, Australia, Cuba, and all the islands and archipelagoes of the sea.
3.
What we believe in invites no one, promises nothing, sits in calmness and light, is positive and composed, knows no discouragement,
Waits patiently its time—a year—a century—a hundred centuries.
4.
The battle rages with many a loud alarm and frequent advance and retreat,
The infidel triumphs—or supposes he triumphs,
The prison, scaffold, garrote, hand-cuffs, iron necklace and anklet, lead-balls, do their work,
The named and unnamed heroes pass to other spheres,
The great speakers and writers are exiled—they lie sick in distant lands,
The cause is asleep—the strongest throats are still, choked with their own blood,
The young men drop their eyelashes toward the ground when they meet,
But for all this, liberty has not gone out of the place, nor the infidel entered into possession.
5.
When liberty goes out of a place, it is not the first to go, nor the second or third to go,
It waits for all the rest to go—it is the last.
6.
When there are no more memories of the superb lovers of the nations of the world,
The superb lovers' names scouted in the public gatherings by the lips of the orators,
Boys not christened after them, but christened after traitors and murderers instead,
Tyrants' and priests' successes really acknowledge! anywhere, for all the ostensible appearance,
You or I walking abroad upon the earth, elated at the sight of slaves, no matter who they are,
And when all life, and all the Souls of men and women are discharged from any part of the earth,
Then shall the instinct of liberty be discharged from that part of the earth,
Then shall the infidel and the tyrant come into possession.
7.
Then courage!
For till all ceases, neither must you cease.
8.
I do not know what you are for, (I do not what I am for myself, nor what any thing is for,)
But I will search carefully for it in being foiled,
In defeat, poverty, imprisonment—for they too are great.
9.
Did we think victory great?
So it is—But now it seems to me, when it cannot be helped, that defeat is great,
And that death and dismay are great.
