APOSTROPHE TO FREEDOM.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume V, Issue 245, 11 January 1878, Page 7

APOSTROPHE TO FREEDOM.

BY WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.

0 Feeedom ! Thou art not, as poets dream.' A. fair young girl, with light and delicate limbs. And wavy tresses gushing from the cap iVrl T l6h the Roman master crowned his'slave. When he took off the gyves. A bearded manY ' Armed to the teeth, art thou ; one mailed hand grasps the broad shield, and one the sword ; thy brow <g°"ous in beauty though it be, is scarred . With tokens of old wars ; thy massive limbs Are strong with struggling. Power at thee has launched His bolts and with- his lightning smitten thee ; They could not quench the life thou hast from heaven. Merciless power has dug thy dungeon deep And his swart armourers, by a thousand fires, sKn* i. rged tby chain 5 y° fc wbile b e deems thee bound Ihe links are shivered, and the prison walls ■ball outward ; terribly thou springest forth As springs the flame above a burning pile, And shoutest to the nations, who return Ihy shoutings, while the pale oppressor flics. Thy birthright was not given by human hands : liiou wert twin-born with man. In pleasant fields While yet our race was few, thou sat'st with him, To tend the quiet flock and watch the stars, And teach the reed to utter simple airs, Thou by his side, amid the tangled wood, .Didst war upon the panther and the wolf, ±lis only foes ; and thou with him didst draw Ihe earliest furrow on the mountain-side, Soft with the deluge. Tyranny himself, 1 ny enemy, although of reverend look, Hoary with many years, and far obeyed, Is later born than thou ; and as he meets rhe grave defiance of thine elder eye Ihe usurper trembles in his fastnesses. Thou shalt wax stronger with the lapse of years, But he shall fade into a feebler age— Feebler, yet subtler. He shall weave his snares, , And spring them on thy careless steps, and clap His withered hands, and from their ambush call His hordes to fall upon thee. He shall send Quaint maskers, wearing fair and gallant forms To catch thy gaze, and, uttering graceful words, lo charm thy ear ; while his sly imps, by stealth, Iwine round thee threads of steel, light thread on thread That grows to f etters-or bind down thy arms ' Withchains contained in chaplets. Oh, not yet May st thou embrace thy corslet, nor lay by Thy sword— not yet, O Freedom ! close thy lids in slumber ; for thine enemy never sleeps, And thou must watch and combat till the day Of the new earth and heaven ! •