University of Virginia Library

SONNET.

Slavery is wrong, most deeply, foully wrong:
Yet shame to those who madly plead its cause,
Trampling on duties, charities and laws!
Do they not know that Truth alone is strong?
That temperance doth at her side belong,
And lofty Justice? that this world's applause,
And this world's blame, but mark, like idle straws,
Which way the popular current sets along?
Truth hath stepped down from off her lofty seat,
And her white robes of Justice are defiled,
When she in angry factions sets her feet,
And fires the pyre that Bigotry has piled.
Still let her words be calm, her action high;
Thus will she surely stab the heart of Slavery.

SONNET.

Freedom! august and spirit-cheering name!
When will thy blessed light encircle all?
How long in Slavery shall the wretched thrall
Pine in an ignorance begot of shame?
How long in grovelling sense, debased and tame,
Shall man's aspiring spirit cringe and crawl,
And, with crushed hopes, hug round that moral pall,
Where life is reft of will and noble aim?
Such questions ask I of the swelling sea;
Such of the roaring winds, and boundless sky;
And, like a trumpet-blast, I hear their cry,
‘He who is true unto himself is free!
When to the Truth man's spirit shall be wed,
Freedom shall be his law, and Peace his bed.’