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Show 174 THE MON'fi!LY OFFERING, To us, whose father's scorn'd to bear The paltry menace of a chain; To us, whose boast is loud and long Of holy Liberty and Light- Say, shall these writhing slaves of Wrong, Plead vainly for their plunder'd Right 1 \Vhat! shall we send, with lavish breath, Our sympa:hies across the wave, Where Manhood, on the field of death, Strikes for his freedom, or a grave ? Shall prayers go up, and hymns be sung For Greece, the Moslem fetter spurning, And millions hail with pen and tongue Our light on all her altars burning 1 Shall Belgium feel, and gallant France, By Vendome's pile and Schoenbrun's wall And Poland, gasping on her lance, The impulse of our cheering call? And shall the SLAVE, beneath our eye, Clank o'er our fields his hateful chain 1 And toss his fetter'd arms on high, And groan for Freedom's gift, in vain 1 Oh, say, shall Prussia's banner be A refuge for the stricken slave 1 And shall the Russian serf go free By Baikal's lake and Neva's wave 1 And shall the wintry-bosom'd Dane Re'ax the iron hand of pride, And bid his bondmen cast the chain, From fctter'd soul, and limb, aside! Shall every flap of England's flag Proclaim that all around ere free, From " farthest Ind" to each blue crag That beetles o'er the Western sea 1 And shall we scoff at Europe's kings, When Freedom's firP. is dim with us, And round our country's altar clings The damning shade of Slavery's curse f STANZAS. Go-let us ask of Constantine To loose his grasp on Poland's throat; And beg the Lord of Mahmoud's line To spare the struggling Suliote' Vill not the scorching answer come From turban'd Turk, and fiery Russ: "Go, loose your fetter'd slaves at home, Then turn, and ask the like of us!" Just God·! and ~hall we calmly rest, The Christian's scorn-the Heathen's mirthContent to live the lingering je~t And by-word of a mocking Earth 1 Shall our own glorious land retnin That curse which Europe scorns lo bear? Shall our own brethren drag the chain Which not even Russia's menials wear 1 Up, then, in Freedom's manly part, From gray-beard old to fiery youth, And on the nation's naked heart Scatter the living coals of Truth I Up-while ye slumber, deeper yet The shadow of our fame is growing ! Up-while ye pause, our sun may set In blood, around our altars flowing! Oh! rouse ye, ere the storm comes forthThe gather'd wrath of God and manLike that which wasted Egypt's earth, When hail and fire above it ran. Hear ye no warnings in the air 1 Feel ye no earthquake underneath 1 Up-up-why will ye slumber where The sleeper only wakes in death~ Up now for Freedom! not in strife Like that your sterner fathers sawThe awful waste of human life- The glory and the guilt of war: But break the chain-the yoke remove, 175 |