 | Miami Woods : a golden wedding and other poems |  |
178
A Hymn of the Day that is Dawning.
If the promise of the Present
Be not a hollow cheat,
If true-hearted men and women
Prove faithful and discreet,
If none falter who are hoping
And contending for the Right,
Then a time is surely coming,
As a day-beam from the night—
Be not a hollow cheat,
If true-hearted men and women
Prove faithful and discreet,
If none falter who are hoping
And contending for the Right,
Then a time is surely coming,
As a day-beam from the night—
When the landless shall have foothold
In fee upon the soil,
And for his wife and little ones
Bend to his willing toil:
When the wanderer, no longer
In sorrow forced to roam,
Shall see around him spring and bloom
The blessèd things of Home:
When the poor and widowed mother
Shall fit recompense obtain,
For her days and nights of toiling,
From the sordid man of gain:
When the brawny limbs of labor,
And the hard and horny hand,
For their strivings, for their doings,
Meet honor shall command:
When suffering hearts that struggle
In silence, and endure,
Shall receive, unsought, the earnest
Ministrations of the pure:
When the master with his bondmen
For a price shall divide the soil,
And the slave, at last enfranchised,
Shall go singing to his toil:
When the bloody trade of the soldier
Shall lose its olden charm,
And the sickle hand be honored more
Than the sword and the red right-arm:
When tolerance and truthfulness
Shall not be under ban,
And the fiercest foe and deadliest
Man knows, shall not be man.
In fee upon the soil,
And for his wife and little ones
Bend to his willing toil:
When the wanderer, no longer
In sorrow forced to roam,
Shall see around him spring and bloom
The blessèd things of Home:
When the poor and widowed mother
Shall fit recompense obtain,
179
From the sordid man of gain:
When the brawny limbs of labor,
And the hard and horny hand,
For their strivings, for their doings,
Meet honor shall command:
When suffering hearts that struggle
In silence, and endure,
Shall receive, unsought, the earnest
Ministrations of the pure:
When the master with his bondmen
For a price shall divide the soil,
And the slave, at last enfranchised,
Shall go singing to his toil:
When the bloody trade of the soldier
Shall lose its olden charm,
And the sickle hand be honored more
Than the sword and the red right-arm:
When tolerance and truthfulness
Shall not be under ban,
And the fiercest foe and deadliest
Man knows, shall not be man.
Be firm, and be united,
Ye who war against the wrong!
Though neglected, though deserted,
In your purpose still be strong!
To the faith and hope that move ye
In the things ye dare and do,
Though the world rise up against ye
Be resolute—be true!
Ye who war against the wrong!
Though neglected, though deserted,
In your purpose still be strong!
180
In the things ye dare and do,
Though the world rise up against ye
Be resolute—be true!
| Miami Woods : a golden wedding and other poems | |