| Higginson and Bigelow, comps. American Sonnets. 1891. | | | | Bondage | | By Lucia (White) Jennison (“Owen Innsley”) (1850– ) |
| | | “AND this is freedom!” cried the serf. “At last | |
| I tread free soil, the free air blows on me;” | |
| And, wild to learn the sweets of liberty, | |
| With eager hope his bosom bounded fast. | |
| But not for naught had the long years amassed | 5 |
| Habit of slavery; among the free | |
| He still was servile, and, disheartened, he | |
| Crept back to the old bondage of the past. | |
| Long did I bear a hard and heavy chain | |
| Wreathed with amaranth and asphodel, | 10 |
| But through the flower-breaths stole the weary pain. | |
| I cast it off and fled, but ’t was in vain; | |
| For when once more I passed by where it fell, | |
| I took it up and bound it on again. | | | | |
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