Upton Sinclair, ed. (1878–1968).
The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest. 1915. | | | | The Antiquity of Freedom |
By William Cullen Bryant |
(American poet and editor, 1794–1878; author of “Thanatopsis”) |
| | | O FREEDOM! thou art not, as poets dream, | |
| A fair young girl, with light and delicate limbs, | |
| And wavy tresses gushing from the cap | |
| With which the Roman master crowned his slave | |
| When he took off the gyves. A bearded man, | 5 |
| Armed to the teeth, art thou; one mailed hand | |
| Grasps the broad shield, and one the sword; thy brow, | |
| Glorious in beauty though it be, is scarred | |
| With tokens of old wars; thy massive limbs | |
| Are strong with struggling. Power at thee has launched | 10 |
| His bolts, and with his lightnings smitten thee; | |
| They could not quench the life thou hast from heaven. | |
| Merciless Power has dug thy dungeon deep, | |
| And his swart armorers, by a thousand fires, | |
| Have forged thy chain; yet, while he deems thee bound, | 15 |
| The links are shivered, and the prison walls | |
| Fall outward; terribly thou springest forth, | |
| As springs the flame above a burning pile, | |
| And shoutest to the nations, who return | |
| Thy shoutings, while the pale oppressor flies. | 20 | | | |
|
|
