Anti-Slavery Poems and Songs of Labor and Reform Part 26

These lines to my old friends stood as dedication in the volume which contained a collection of pieces under the general t.i.tle of In War Time.

The group belonging distinctly under that t.i.tle I have retained here; the other pieces in the volume are distributed among the appropriate divisions.

OLOR ISCa.n.u.s queries: "Why should we Vex at the land's ridiculous miserie?"

So on his Usk banks, in the blood-red dawn Of England's civil strife, did careless Vaughan Bemock his times. O friends of many years!

Though faith and trust are stronger than our fears, And the signs promise peace with liberty, Not thus we trifle with our country's tears And sweat of agony. The future's gain Is certain as G.o.d's truth; but, meanwhile, pain Is bitter and tears are salt: our voices take A sober tone; our very household songs Are heavy with a nation's griefs and wrongs; And innocent mirth is chastened for the sake Of the brave hearts that nevermore shall beat, The eyes that smile no more, the unreturning feet!

1863

THY WILL BE DONE.

WE see not, know not; all our way Is night,--with Thee alone is day From out the torrent's troubled drift, Above the storm our prayers we lift, Thy will be done!

The flesh may fail, the heart may faint, But who are we to make complaint, Or dare to plead, in times like these, The weakness of our love of ease?

Thy will be done!

We take with solemn thankfulness Our burden up, nor ask it less, And count it joy that even we May suffer, serve, or wait for Thee, Whose will be done!

Though dim as yet in tint and line, We trace Thy picture's wise design, And thank Thee that our age supplies Its dark relief of sacrifice.

Thy will be done!

And if, in our unworthiness, Thy sacrificial wine we press; If from Thy ordeal's heated bars Our feet are seamed with crimson scars, Thy will be done!

If, for the age to come, this hour Of trial hath vicarious power, And, blest by Thee, our present pain, Be Liberty's eternal gain, Thy will be done!

Strike, Thou the Master, we Thy keys, The anthem of the destinies!

The minor of Thy loftier strain, Our hearts shall breathe the old refrain, Thy will be done!

1861.

A WORD FOR THE HOUR.

THE firmament breaks up. In black eclipse Light after light goes out. One evil star, Luridly glaring through the smoke of war, As in the dream of the Apocalypse, Drags others down. Let us not weakly weep Nor rashly threaten. Give us grace to keep Our faith and patience; wherefore should we leap On one hand into fratricidal fight, Or, on the other, yield eternal right, Frame lies of law, and good and ill confound?

What fear we? Safe on freedom's vantage-ground Our feet are planted: let us there remain In unrevengeful calm, no means untried Which truth can sanction, no just claim denied, The sad spectators of a suicide!

They break the links of Union: shall we light The fires of h.e.l.l to weld anew the chain On that red anvil where each blow is pain?

Draw we not even now a freer breath, As from our shoulders falls a load of death Loathsome as that the Tuscan's victim bore When keen with life to a dead horror bound?

Why take we up the accursed thing again?

Pity, forgive, but urge them back no more Who, drunk with pa.s.sion, flaunt disunion's rag With its vile reptile-blazon. Let us press The golden cl.u.s.ter on our brave old flag In closer union, and, if numbering less, Brighter shall s.h.i.+ne the stars which still remain.

16th First mo., 1861.

"EIN FESTE BURG IST UNSER GOTT."

LUTHER'S HYMN.

WE wait beneath the furnace-blast The pangs of transformation; Not painlessly doth G.o.d recast And mould anew the nation.

Hot burns the fire Where wrongs expire; Nor spares the hand That from the land Uproots the ancient evil.

The hand-breadth cloud the sages feared Its b.l.o.o.d.y rain is dropping; The poison plant the fathers spared All else is overtopping.

East, West, South, North, It curses the earth; All justice dies, And fraud and lies Live only in its shadow.

What gives the wheat-field blades of steel?

What points the rebel cannon?

What sets the roaring rabble's heel On the old star-spangled pennon?

What breaks the oath Of the men o' the South?

What whets the knife For the Union's life?-- Hark to the answer: Slavery!

Then waste no blows on lesser foes In strife unworthy freemen.

G.o.d lifts to-day the veil, and shows The features of the demon O North and South, Its victims both, Can ye not cry, "Let slavery die!"

And union find in freedom?

What though the cast-out spirit tear The nation in his going?

We who have shared the guilt must share The pang of his o'erthrowing!

Whate'er the loss, Whate'er the cross, Shall they complain Of present pain Who trust in G.o.d's hereafter?

For who that leans on His right arm Was ever yet forsaken?

What righteous cause can suffer harm If He its part has taken?

Though wild and loud, And dark the cloud, Behind its folds His hand upholds The calm sky of to-morrow!

Above the maddening cry for blood, Above the wild war-drumming, Let Freedom's voice be heard, with good The evil overcoming.

Give prayer and purse To stay the Curse Whose wrong we share, Whose shame we bear, Whose end shall gladden Heaven!

In vain the bells of war shall ring Of triumphs and revenges, While still is spared the evil thing That severs and estranges.

But blest the ear That yet shall hear The jubilant bell That rings the knell Of Slavery forever!

Then let the selfish lip be dumb, And hushed the breath of sighing; Before the joy of peace must come The pains of purifying.

G.o.d give us grace Each in his place To bear his lot, And, murmuring not, Endure and wait and labor!

1861.

TO JOHN C. FREMONT.

On the 31st of August, 1861, General Fremont, then in charge of the Western Department, issued a proclamation which contained a clause, famous as the first announcement of emanc.i.p.ation: "The property," it declared, "real and personal, of all persons in the State of Missouri, who shall take up arms against the United States, or who shall be directly proven to have taken active part with their enemies in the field, is declared to be confiscated to the public use; and their slaves, if any they have, are hereby declared free men." Mr. Lincoln regarded the proclamation as premature and countermanded it, after vainly endeavoring to persuade Fremont of his own motion to revoke it.

THY error, Fremont, simply was to act A brave man's part, without the statesman's tact, And, taking counsel but of common sense, To strike at cause as well as consequence.

Oh, never yet since Roland wound his horn At Roncesvalles, has a blast been blown Far-heard, wide-echoed, startling as thine own, Heard from the van of freedom's hope forlorn It had been safer, doubtless, for the time, To flatter treason, and avoid offence To that Dark Power whose underlying crime Heaves upward its perpetual turbulence.

But if thine be the fate of all who break The ground for truth's seed, or forerun their years Till lost in distance, or with stout hearts make A lane for freedom through the level spears, Still take thou courage! G.o.d has spoken through thee, Irrevocable, the mighty words, Be free!

The land shakes with them, and the slave's dull ear Turns from the rice-swamp stealthily to hear.