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Idyls of Freedom 
 
 AELLA GREENE 
 
 author of 
 John Peters," " Gaihered from Life," Etc. 
 
 PUBLISHED IN 1893. IJT X IJ S^7 
 
T4 V 
 
 7^1 
 
 U5^1 .f«|3 
 
 Copyright, 1893, 
 
 BY 
 
 AELLA GREENE. 
 
 THE BRYANT PRINTING COMPANY, 
 FLORENCE, MASS. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 IDYLS OF FREEDOM 
 
 AMERICA 
 
 IN OTHER LANDS 
 
 TRUTH MAKES FREE 
 
 II. 
 ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA 
 VISION AND PROPHECY 
 A WARNING TO COLUMBIA 
 'O PATRIOTS PURE AND STRONG 
 A PILGRIMAGE OF CZARS 
 BY KOSCIUSKO'S DUST 
 WARNINGS FROM ELDER DAYS 
 
DYLS OF FREEDOM 
 
IDYLS OF FREEDOM. 
 
 r^ STARS, what history 
 
 It has been yours to see 
 Enacted here since man, 
 Crown of creation's plan, 
 His wanderings began — 
 Since to his pristine joy 
 He added an alloy 
 That forth a rover sent 
 Him, fired with discontent. 
 Say since, with Eden lost. 
 The fateful bounds he crossed, 
 How dear his straying cost ! 
 Still, while in wretched plight. 
 He was not hopeless quite, 
 Nor rayless was his night. 
 
 Stars that have kindly shone 
 On paths his feet have gone — 
 Than downward, let us hope, 
 Onward more, and up — 
 
IDYLS OF FREEDOM. 
 
 Aid Still his wish and quest 
 
 For truth, and peace and rest. 
 
 Still from the blue above 
 
 Shine where he wars to prove 
 
 His patriotic love, 
 
 And, dying, asks you tell 
 
 The ages that he fell 
 
 To foil the tyrant's hand 
 
 And bless his native land. 
 
 And tell, as tell ye must, 
 
 O stars, for stars are just, 
 
 From what great sacrifice 
 
 All others do arise. 
 
 Tell what, foreseen, inspired. 
 
 And what accomplished, fired, 
 
 The patriot heart to live 
 
 For liberty and give 
 
 His life to make men free. 
 
 And aid them that they see 
 
 That highest liberty 
 
 Gives equal weight of care. 
 
 Gives unto each his share 
 
 Of burdens all must bear — 
 
IDYLS OF FREEDOM. 
 
 That liberty, if boon, 
 Used wrongly, cometh soon 
 To license, that is not 
 True liberty, but blot 
 On the historic page, 
 A hindrance to the age. 
 
 This life, this sacrifice, 
 O stars, from which arise 
 The heavenly blessings given 
 And hope of more in heaven — 
 This life of hope for man, 
 Ye saw as it began. 
 Ye saw its teeming day, 
 O stars, and sunset ray. 
 And deathly chill of night. 
 And hint at last of light. 
 Ye saw the glorious morn 
 Of grace and peace adorn 
 The mountain heights of time 
 And shine to every clime. 
 To make all life sublime ! 
 
lO IDYLS OF FREEDOM. 
 
 A Star 'twas guided them 
 Who fared to Bethlehem ; 
 And at cerulean poise 
 It sentineled their joys, 
 As o'er the Saviour born, 
 Rejoicing till the morn, 
 They mused on what should be 
 His wondrous history. 
 Stars gave the warning dream 
 Of Herod's hellish scheme 
 And guided, then, the flight 
 To Egypt through the night. 
 And o'er the child returned 
 The stars in gladness burned. 
 
 The stars rejoiced the boy 
 And study gave and joy. 
 As through the years he grew 
 To all the ages knew — 
 Till wondering sages gazed 
 Adoring and amazed. 
 
IDYLS OF FREEDOM. I I 
 
 Stars cheered the Christ who prayed 
 
 In lonely mountain glade 
 
 And sang their joy to see 
 
 The helpful ministry 
 
 Of Him of Galilee. 
 
 And when His followers slept 
 
 Ye stars in pity wept, 
 
 And, weeping, wondered ye 
 
 At the sublimity 
 
 Of sad Gethsemane. 
 
 And when at Calvary 
 
 The sun refused to shine 
 
 Your stellar beams were sign 
 
 That Christ the slain should rise, 
 
 Completed sacrifice. 
 
 Triumphant to the skies ! 
 
 Ye stars that wondering saw 
 His answer to the law 
 Who for the sinful died 
 And poured the precious tide 
 Of His great life, to give 
 
12 IDYLS OF FREEDOM. 
 
 The sinful chance to live,^ 
 Ye stars who heard the word 
 Sublimest ever heard 
 That Jesus at His death 
 Spoke with His dying breath, 
 To say the work was done, 
 The victory was won — 
 From that sublimity. 
 That matchless agony, 
 All greatness doth proceed. 
 Thence every noble deed, 
 Thence all unselfishness. 
 Thence every pulse to bless 
 That helps the patriot die. 
 Without the question why, 
 For home and libertv. 
 
AMERICA. 
 
 /^~^N days and deeds sublime 
 
 That gem this western clime, 
 O stars of Freedom, shine, 
 And shed your beams benign 
 Where Concord bridge was won, 
 And rustic Lexington — 
 And Bunker Hill declared. 
 And Bennington, how fared 
 The foes of liberty 
 Who warred agairst the free. 
 
 Shine where the great and good 
 With high solicitude, 
 In meekness knelt to pray 
 To Heaven to drive away 
 The foreign foes and give 
 The country chance to live. 
 How humble and how great, 
 How fit to found a state. 
 
14 AMERICA. 
 
 Was he who knelt that day, 
 At Valley Forge, to pray. 
 And may his land remain 
 The place of all good gain 
 And Freedom's own domain, 
 The home and resting place 
 Of bravery and of grace. 
 Of greatness and all worth — 
 The paradise of earth ! 
 
 Though truth the charm will break, 
 
 Still best the truth to speak. 
 
 Here, where 'twas general boast 
 
 That this was Freedom's coast. 
 
 Were human beings chained. 
 
 While selfishness explained 
 
 That slavery was right. 
 
 And those who saw the plight 
 
 That Liberty was in 
 
 By league with such a sin 
 
 And dared rebuke the wrong. 
 
 That still was growing strong 
 
AMERICA. 15 
 
 While grew the nation weak 
 To danger that 'twould break, 
 Were stigmatized as fools 
 Beyond discretion's rules. 
 But in these later days 
 The scoffers dare the praise 
 That radicals were wise 
 And fit to canonize 
 For the sublimest skies ! 
 
 How cursed this sin the land 
 We came to understand 
 When Donelson was need 
 And Fredericksburg, and greed 
 Of rough-hewn havoc made 
 On Sherman's master raid 
 Of horse and infantry 
 From inland to the sea ! 
 And need to prove our liege 
 To liberty was siege 
 Of Vicksburg and the shock 
 Of ''Chickamauga's Rock," 
 
l6 AMERICA. 
 
 Grim Thomas of the build 
 To name for Caesar's guild. 
 So Grierson's reckless dash, 
 Discreet in that 'twas rash ; 
 And Farragut in the shrouds 
 And Hooker in the clouds, 
 And Ellsworth first to die, 
 And gallant Lyon — why 
 S* early sent to heaven ! 
 And why McPherson given 
 And thousands, thousands more ! 
 How runneth up the score. 
 Through scenes of din and gore. 
 To Gettysburg, sublime 
 Through all the years of time ! 
 
 What tongue can tell, what pen, 
 
 The fate of prisoned men 
 
 Who, doomed to the mill 
 
 Of Andersonville, 
 
 Learned the tortures that spell 
 
 A new name for hell ! 
 
AMERICA. 
 
 And who can count their tears 
 
 And warring hopes and fears, 
 
 Who mourned their loved ones there, 
 
 Or slain in conflict, where, 
 
 Though glorious thus to fall 
 
 For country and for all 
 
 That's dear, and true, and high, 
 
 'Tis fearful, still to die ! 
 
 And hard was it to know 
 
 That, with the slaughter, slow 
 
 Moved the cause of right 
 
 And darkened down the night 
 
 Of doubt, with scarce a ray 
 
 To hint of coming day. 
 
 But rose a lustrous star 
 
 When he led on the war 
 
 Whose calm, courageous way 
 
 Of hero in affray. 
 
 Assured, at once, a morn 
 
 And was the sign to warn 
 
 The foemen of defeat 
 
 Their cause was sure to meet. 
 
 17 
 
AMERICA, 
 
 Now once and three times three, 
 At Appomattox tree, 
 Give everyone to all 
 Who heeded Freedom's call 
 And marched with Grant, to hew 
 The hard-fought journey through 
 The Wilderness, to see 
 The dawn of victory. 
 
 But who shall sing to tell 
 Their deeds who fought and fell 
 In all the hard campaigns, 
 Who equal epic strains 
 For those whose crimson stains 
 Full thrice a hundred plains 
 And reddens bloody years, 
 Which make them high compeers 
 Of all the brave that time 
 Hath given to wreath and rhyme ! 
 
 Let gratitude be given 
 In joyful song to Heaven ; 
 
AMERICA 
 
 Aye, shout and sing again, 
 Good citizens, that when 
 The nation was in dole 
 A man of prophet soul 
 Was sent to meet our need. 
 A man inspired to read 
 The meaning of the times 
 The country for its crimes 
 Was going through, — a man 
 With genius fit to plan 
 And brave enough to act, 
 He made his vision fact. 
 Wielding the nation's might 
 For mercy and the right, 
 And breaking, at a stroke, 
 The bondman's galling yoke. 
 
 Good stars, your radiance shed 
 On paths where Lincoln led 
 Through all those years of strife 
 Up to the higher life 
 Of Freedom and of peace 
 
IN OTHER LANDS. 
 
 And all the good increase 
 
 That makes these states combined 
 
 The envy of mankind ! 
 
 IN OTHER LANDS. 
 
 ^ OOD stars, what prophet ken 
 
 Had Aztec Juarez when, 
 For liberty he fought 
 Against the foe who sought 
 To bind with Spanish chain 
 The Mexican in train 
 Of papal Rome, to slave 
 Subservient where the brave 
 Descendants of the sun 
 Their long career had run, 
 Free as the airs that fanned 
 Their lovely native land. 
 Well ye rejoiced to see, 
 Where foreign tyranny 
 Had reigned, superior rise, 
 
IN OTHER LANDS. 
 
 To crown the high emprise 
 Of Juarez with success 
 And so mankind to bless, 
 The fair republic bright 
 With promise for the right 
 Of patriots everywhere. 
 For each hath right to share 
 Each country of the free, 
 Wherever dwelleth he. 
 
 Still Juarez only did 
 As high examples bid — 
 Through thirty years of blood, 
 When that brave Swede withstood 
 The papal powers combined, 
 Who sought on all mankind 
 To place the Latin yoke — 
 Gustavus brave, who broke 
 The bondage long and sore 
 For northmen evermore. 
 He drove the power of Rome 
 From church, and court, and home. 
 
IN OTHER LANDS. 
 
 Wherein the people sing, 
 To crown Gustavus king ! 
 And cadence of the song 
 The southland doth prolong. 
 Where well Emanuel strove 
 And Garibaldi's love 
 Was given for Italy, 
 Mankind and liberty. 
 
 And Magyars, whose Kossuth 
 For country and for truth 
 Was sacrifice, may raise 
 To favoring Heaven their praise 
 For his grand life, and twine 
 The wreath and pray the Nine 
 To sing to full import 
 That high in Austrian court 
 The Magyars reign, whom erst 
 The tyrant Austrians cursed ! 
 
 How bright the stars that look 
 On Scotland's famous brook 
 
IN OTHER LANDS. 23 
 
 And bid the ages learn 
 That Bruce of Bannockburn 
 Was Caledonia's pride I 
 Shine where her sons defied, 
 At Flodden field, the foe 
 That laid her banner low. 
 Yet in defeat were strong 
 To height of grandest song. 
 Beam kind on every glen 
 Known to his foot and ken, 
 That kingliest of men, 
 The Wallace of the Eld, 
 Whom, then, ye stars beheld 
 And sang him worthy praise 
 Of all the future days. 
 
 Shine, stars, with beams benign 
 On scene of deeds divine. 
 Where Winkelried the brave, 
 His Switzerland to save. 
 Threw on the Austrian steel 
 His mighty rage of zeal 
 
24 IN OTHER LANDS. 
 
 And Struck in death the blow 
 To break the serried foe. 
 His followers raining blows 
 Where grand his courage rose, 
 Thus turned the tide and day 
 Against the cruel fray 
 Of those who sought t' enslave 
 The Switzer patriots brave, 
 Whom God's own mountains gave 
 That love of liberty 
 That fits men to be free. 
 
 And evermore shall ye, 
 Bright stars of liberty, 
 Rejoice to shine upon 
 The field where Cromwell won, 
 At Marston Moor, the day 
 And stemmed the tyrant's sway, 
 Till full at Naseby, then, 
 Where royal Charles again 
 Marshaled his hosts, the band 
 Of patriots dared withstand 
 
TRUTH MAKES FREE. 25 
 
 The legions of the king. 
 And all the years shall sing, 
 To let the future know 
 They routed him to show 
 That foreign he and foe, 
 Though native born, if he 
 Love not true libertv. 
 
 TRUTH MAKES FREE. 
 
 A S truth alone makes free, 
 
 Who country loves must see 
 The truth and love the truth 
 As ardently as youth 
 The maiden from whose heart 
 Not even death can part. 
 Truth-founded love gives rate, 
 The citizen's estate, 
 A country and a place. 
 Fraternity and race. 
 Alien to truth, a man 
 
26 TRUTH MAKES FREE. 
 
 Nor country hath, nor clan, 
 Though castled well and crowned 
 With choicest treasures found 
 In late or olden times 
 Through west or Orient climes. 
 Aye, foreign he, and poor, 
 And sick, though mount and moor 
 Afford their gold for wealth 
 And myrrhs to bless his health. 
 Not loving truth, then he 
 Shall poor and homeless be. 
 Though heraldry declare 
 That ancient lineage rare 
 Makes him the rightful heir 
 To every land and throne, 
 And though the people own 
 The purple of his power. 
 Rejoicing in his dower 
 And seeking bards to sing 
 Him bishop, lord and king. 
 But harps must not descend. 
 For song hath upward trend ; 
 So who but hymns for pay 
 
TRUTH MAKES FREE. 27 
 
 Sings but a meagre lay. 
 And rhyme they e'er so well, 
 The bards who seek to tell 
 An untruth in a song 
 And sing success of wrong, 
 Some Croesus toast for wealth 
 That came alone by stealth. 
 And hymn the tyrant's power 
 As given by heavenly dower, 
 And cunning as divine 
 Whose skill hath ends malign. 
 Will find, though flamed to blaze 
 That gleams of gala days. 
 They fail to reach the lays 
 That live in honor's praise. 
 Then, faltering down to phrase 
 Whose labored lines confess 
 They sing from selfishness. 
 They'll rave to furious stress 
 Of prayer to Power to bless. 
 When Truth alone gives theme 
 Befitting poet's dream. 
 
28 TRUTH MAKES FREE. 
 
 This truth, ye stars above, 
 That all the ages prove — 
 The true alone can love 
 Their country or a mate. 
 No love, Hymen a fate. 
 Fit messenger of hate I 
 This truth, bright stars above, 
 No truth, there is no love. 
 No truth, the gold shall rust, 
 To teach the truth it must — 
 No truth, then love is lust. 
 And love of country, show 
 Which all true patriots know 
 As subterfuge and sham 
 That would to meanness damn 
 Be3^ond redeeming grace, 
 A countrv and a race. 
 
 Yet strange contrasts arise. 
 
 Some royal mysteries — 
 
 A king to virtue known. 
 
 Yet who could make his throne 
 
TRUTH MAKES FREE. 29 
 
 By tricks that must belong 
 
 The hellish arts among, 
 
 The anchor of a wrong, 
 
 That should have scourge of song, 
 
 The very rage of rhyme, 
 
 To blast to future time ! 
 
 The Charles whom Cromwell fought, 
 
 True in his home, was naught 
 
 But false to native land. 
 
 Though promising, his hand 
 
 Withheld the needed good 
 
 He pledged to those who stood 
 
 For liberty and right. 
 
 For these did Cromwell fight ; 
 
 For these he overthrew 
 
 The Stuart king and slew 
 
 The false one of the throne. 
 
 And by the act was shown, 
 
 In England evermore — 
 
 A truth the wide world o'er, 
 
 And as the sunlight plain — 
 
30 TRUTH :\IAKES FREE. 
 
 The right of kings to reign, 
 
 Original in heaven, 
 
 Is to the governed given, 
 
 By them to be transferred 
 
 In their installing word 
 
 To those their love shall say 
 
 The kingly traits display. 
 
 Would Cromwell had remained, 
 Preventing crime that stained 
 Bright Albion's sovran name, 
 By other Charles who came. 
 The Charles who ever wrought 
 Injustice and who thought 
 Of self alone and sought 
 Delight in splendid sin 
 And seemed possessed to win. 
 By elegance of shame, 
 An ever fiorid fame 
 Unto his royal name ! 
 
IDYLS OF FREEDOM 
 
 II 
 
ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 
 
 T F ill the theme befits 
 
 To sing of Austerlitz ; 
 If vain to weep awhile 
 By lone Helena's isle ; 
 If cold, to some, such theme 
 For patriotic dream, 
 In that the Corsican 
 Fought not for fellow man, 
 But strove alone for fame 
 For his imperial name — 
 O would some one as rod 
 Of an avenging God 
 Arise, who, sent by w^rath 
 Of Heaven, should cleave a path 
 Through Tyranny's domains 
 To far Siberia's plains. 
 And break the prison bars 
 Of victims of the czars ! 
 
34 ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 
 
 Sarmatia blotted out 
 By Russian robber rout ! 
 Her patriots under ban 
 At whim of Tartar clan ! 
 'Twere just and holy cause 
 To give the robbers pause 
 And wrest from their hard hand 
 That fair despoiled land. 
 Though bearing Tartar brand 
 Of master on his slave 
 Which Russian monster gave, 
 She shows distinctly, still, 
 Despite his iron will, 
 The rare sw^eet quality 
 Of fitness to be free. 
 
 The cause demands a man 
 Serener, grander than 
 The dreaded Corsican ? 
 May one with like strong hand 
 And genius to command 
 Arise, some leader born 
 
ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 35 
 
 Under the star of morn, 
 Some one whose shining worth 
 Shall win the best of earth 
 To highest hope and prayer 
 For Heaven's especial care, 
 And win good gallant men 
 To join his flag, whose ken 
 At once, from far, can see 
 The day of victory — 
 The men with might to win 
 The boon their faith hath seen. 
 
 O chieftain of the skies 
 And Freedom's cause, arise ! 
 And panoplied for wars, 
 Go guided by the stars 
 That favoring shone 
 Above Napoleon, 
 In that sublime advance 
 From his admiring France 
 That made the Russias quake 
 And all the kingdoms shake. 
 
36 ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 
 
 Stars they to aid to see 
 The way to victory, 
 Stars that would lustrous burn 
 To light the grand return 
 Of victors from the fray 
 Where justice won the day. 
 
 Not so the march when Ney 
 Fared on the frozen w^ay, 
 To cheer his leader back 
 Along the winter track 
 With remnant of his host, 
 To mourn the prize they lost, 
 A city burned to ban 
 The coming Corsican. 
 Him Russia dared not fight, 
 But put to sorry plight 
 By burning roof and bread 
 That should have housed and fed 
 The host, who froze or starved 
 By thousands ere they carved. 
 With Bonaparte and Ney, 
 To France their pilgrim way. 
 
ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 37 
 
 But those of right engaged 
 In righteous warring, waged 
 To break the dungeon bars 
 Of prisoned worth, ye stars 
 Would good birds send to feed 
 Unto their fullest need 
 With manna of the heaven 
 That bread hath ever given 
 To those who well have striven 
 Through hard or favored fight 
 In furtherance of right. 
 
 If Moscow burned again 
 
 'Twould light the prisoned men 
 
 From durance hard to flee 
 
 To hope and liberty, 
 
 The men whose dungeon bars 
 
 Are legacy of czars, 
 
 Kings whose oppression is 
 
 Acme of tyrannies ! 
 
 Sending those away 
 
 In bondage sore to stay 
 
^S ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 
 
 Whose glances have told, 
 
 Or a breath over bold, 
 
 That the fancies they hold 
 
 Slight hindrances are 
 
 To the wish of a czar ! 
 
 Dooming to banishment 
 
 For the mildest intent 
 
 Of the patriot heart ! 
 
 O tyrant, what art 
 
 Of the demons is thine ! 
 
 What spirit malign 
 
 That breathes from the hell 
 
 Where the worst furies dwell ! 
 
 Strange that the czar should ban 
 
 Those whom but easy plan 
 
 Of right would lead to own 
 
 Allegiance to his throne 
 
 And give their life to prove 
 
 Their loyalty of love 
 
 And interest in the fame 
 
 Of Alexander's name. 
 
ARRAIGN-MEXT OF RUSSIA. 39 
 
 Instead, while nations weep, 
 These Tartar tyrants keep 
 The victims of their hate 
 In worse than hellish fate, 
 Chained down in prison long, 
 Guarded by legions strong, 
 While lordly laugh at cries 
 That move the pitying skies 
 Rings through the palaces 
 Rank with festivities. 
 Where hireling wit doth sneer 
 And trembling peasants fear. 
 
 Read not the story through, 
 Read not of Finn and Jew. 
 Read but the lines that tell 
 How fiercely fought and well 
 The Polish brave who fell 
 When Kosciusco gave 
 Herculean blows to save 
 Their country from the grave 
 The Tartar tyrant's might 
 Had dug for truth and right ! 
 
40 ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 
 
 Yet failed Sarmatia, then ; 
 
 And her heroic men, 
 
 Whose patriotic worth 
 
 Had brightened all the earth, 
 
 Were doomed to martyr's pains 
 
 Or, graced with heavy chains, 
 
 AVere named a felon band 
 
 And sent to foreign strand. 
 
 There they were given brand 
 
 To speak a meaner rate 
 
 Than marked the murderer's fate, 
 
 Whose hands the blood had spilt 
 
 Of parricidal guilt. 
 
 Read not the story through, 
 One page alone will do ! 
 One page alone of dread, 
 One page with terror red. 
 One page of hot tears shed. 
 One page of that despair. 
 Which fades the eye and hair, 
 Saps e'en the power to cry. 
 Gives a hot thirst to die, 
 
ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 41 
 
 Kills the smile on the face, 
 Blots the last look of grace, 
 Blots the last mental trace. 
 Stills the hand from device, 
 Chills the blood into ice, 
 And the nerves into bone, 
 And the heart into stone ! 
 
 O what chieftain would dare 
 In the lists with despair ! 
 O dead and worse than dead 
 The heart whence hope has fled ! 
 And yet, though dead, how quick 
 That heart at the tick 
 Of the seconds of time 
 And the pulsing of rhyme 
 Of the song that keeps tune 
 With the cadence of June ! 
 Despairing and dead, 
 Yet trembling with dread 
 At the tenderest song 
 That is wafted along 
 
42 ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 
 
 By the zephyrs of morn 
 
 Over clover and corn, 
 
 Or when silver stars stream 
 
 That so floats with their gleam 
 
 That silence is heard 
 
 O'er the clearest sweet w^ord 
 
 That friendship can give 
 
 To wake one to live ! 
 
 There's never a heart 
 
 That's alive to all art 
 
 And is beating in chime 
 
 With nature's sweet rhyme, 
 
 But if conquered by fear 
 
 Would shudder to hear 
 
 Even music of waves 
 
 Of the streamlet that laves 
 
 The myrtle banks sweet 
 
 Where the fairy ones meet, 
 
 In elfin land grove, 
 
 To warble of love. 
 
 Aye, held by despair, 
 
 No victim could bear 
 
 Breath from elfin land, where 
 
ARRAIGN^IENT OF RUSSIA. 43 
 
 But a breatli of the air 
 Of the earth would displace 
 The planets that trace 
 Round the elfin land sun 
 The courses they run. 
 
 What then is the fate 
 Of the victims of hate 
 Of the despot who reigns 
 O'er the Russian domains 
 And his victims doth cast 
 To the Borean blast 
 Of the bleak northern plains, 
 Or doometh to chains 
 Of Saghalin, or wills 
 That in -Caucasus hills 
 They shall dig till they die, 
 And dishonored shall lie 
 In a far away grave 
 Too mean for a slave ! 
 
 Despair that anywhere 
 Is worst of woes that are, 
 
44 ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 
 
 How thrice 'tis very hell 
 In a Siberian cell, 
 Or in Siberian mines 
 Where hope never shines, 
 Where song is never heard. 
 Where friendship's kind word 
 Would seem but a dream, 
 But a swamp-like gleam — 
 A phosphorus ray, 
 To hint of a day 
 That never could come 
 To a castaway's gloom ! 
 
 Yet, patriots, sad till song 
 
 Doth tantalize, ere long 
 
 The skies shall make you strong 
 
 Unto successful war 
 
 Against the despot czar. 
 
 And fates shall seize his scourge 
 
 And time for him a dirge 
 
 Of punishment as sore 
 
 As that he had in store 
 
ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 45 
 
 For patriotic hearts 
 
 That long had known his arts. 
 
 O Heaven, whose lurid star 
 Maddens to might and war ! 
 When thou shalt undertake 
 The Russian yoke to break, 
 Say, Heaven of justice, say, 
 What blood can ever pay 
 The wrong to Poland done 
 By those whose ravage won 
 By Vistula's fair tide, 
 That, often crimson-dyed 
 From noblest patriot slain, 
 Goes moaning to the main ! 
 
 Ye thrice ten thousand dead. 
 Whose blood the Cossacks shed 
 In homes of Praga fair, 
 How eloquent your prayer 
 Throughout the saddened years 
 Of agony and tears — 
 
46 ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 
 
 A plea to Heaven to aid 
 
 A land in ruin laid, 
 
 A plea repeated o'er 
 
 With emphasis of gore 
 
 Of many thousands more 
 
 Where Warsaw's reddened plains, 
 
 That Freedom's ichor stains, 
 
 And Cracow's crimsoned sod 
 
 Still wail their plaints to God ! 
 
 Fair Wanda's mountain moans 
 
 Responsive to the groans 
 
 And Dnieper makes her cry, 
 
 For Dniester to reply. 
 
 And from the Don to San, 
 
 Rebuking Russian ban, 
 
 Blood red the waters gleam 
 
 Of each Sarmatian stream ! 
 
 Whichever way it track, 
 
 To Baltic or the Black, 
 
 Sad, sad each river flows, 
 
 A requiem of woes. 
 
 From Poland to the seas 
 
 That chant her miseries ! 
 
ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 47 
 
 O ye who died to give 
 To Poland right to live — 
 A century of grief, 
 With none to give relief ! 
 And worthy sons of sires 
 Of Poland bound ! O fires 
 Of hell, what flame can pay 
 And burn the guilt away 
 That clothes the Russian name 
 With everlasting shame ! 
 
 Stay, Angel of the Book 
 Of Record, stay, and look ! 
 For this is far from all 
 That flames of that fierce thrall 
 Upon the single page 
 That tells the Russian rage 
 To Poland done, whose whole 
 Of tyrant dirt and dole 
 Hath hue of Herod's crime. 
 And smells of Nero's time ! 
 Fair women sent to pine 
 
48 ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 
 
 And delve in noisome mine 
 Where gladness cannot shine, 
 Or sent with felon's chain 
 To walk the weary plain 
 Where mercy hath no rate, 
 Where hunger hath no sate 
 But cup and crust of hate ! 
 Or hath she darker fate, 
 That is so w^orse than death 
 It is not given breath ! 
 
 Nor is this all; for there, 
 
 Condemned to felon's fare, 
 
 Do patriot children know 
 
 Maturity of woe I 
 
 O God ! where is the hell 
 
 In which damned spirits dwell 
 
 That is enough for this ! 
 
 For blotting out the bliss 
 
 From childhood's heart of joy 
 
 That never knew alloy 
 
 Of ill, nor thought to stray 
 
 In sin's forbidden way ! 
 
ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 49 
 
 To keep the code of heaven, 
 The patriots have forgiven, 
 In hopes that kindness win 
 Who seventy times should sin. 
 Yet seven times that have striven 
 These foes of man and Heaven, 
 And by ten thousand times 
 Have multiplied their crimes — 
 With shrewdest cunning wrought, 
 With mighty armies fought. 
 To quench the patriot fires 
 That God himself inspires 
 In hearts that turn, O stars. 
 To you, through prison bars, 
 And wail to Heaven the cries 
 Of Poland's agonies ! 
 
 Endured, the Tartars laugh 
 And like the Chaldean quaff. 
 At high imperial feast 
 To their full wishes drest. 
 The nectar of their pride 
 That long hath Heaven defied — 
 
50 ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 
 
 Potations proudly poured 
 To mock the names adored 
 By Poland and by man 
 For leading Freedom's van ! 
 Wine drunk in Tartar hate, 
 From vessels desecrate 
 That came from temples where, 
 In their devotion rare, 
 The loving and the free 
 Their feasts of liberty 
 In Polish custom held, 
 Far back in days of Eld ! 
 
 But Heaven impatient grows. 
 And, noting long the woes 
 Of Poland and of all 
 Within the Tartar's thrall. 
 Will surely send a hand 
 To write where Russian band. 
 In revel o'er their wine, 
 Shall read and know the sign 
 Grim glistening on the wall, 
 That tyranny must fall ! 
 
ARRAIGNMENT OF RUSSIA. 5 1 
 
 Aye, patience may endure, 
 But wrath deferred is sure. 
 And soon some one shall rise 
 To hear and heed the cries 
 Of victims of the czars ! 
 And then, O waiting stars, 
 How will ye shout and sing 
 And call the birds to wing 
 In swiftest flight, to tell 
 Wherever patriots dwell. 
 Who 'twas in frozen hell 
 Of far Siberian plains 
 Broke oft" the bars and chains 
 Of victims of the czars. 
 And, witnessed by the stars, 
 Declared the patriots free 
 And worthy liberty. 
 And Poland's flag unfurled 
 To honor in the world ! 
 
VISION AND PROPHECY. 
 
 /^N Ural hills it came, 
 
 A tongue of prophet flame, 
 A burning thither sent 
 From out the firmament 
 Of justice, love and truth, 
 And everlasting youth. 
 And thus the fervid voice: 
 "O tyrant, have thy choice, 
 To turn to righteousness 
 And teach thy hands to bless — 
 Repent the despot's crime, 
 Worst tyranny of time, 
 Or take the doom thai falls 
 Thereon — the mighty walls 
 That Power uprears thrown down, 
 The dimmed and wrested crown 
 Of monarchs in defeat. 
 With conscience to repeat 
 To all the winds that fleet — 
 ' The tvrant's fate is meet ! ' " 
 
VISION AND PROPHECY. 53 
 
 Thus while the bright night heard 
 Swift flew the warning word 
 And sought by westward star 
 The palace of the czar. 
 There, round their festive board, 
 His nobles and their lord 
 Glowed o'er their ruddy wine, 
 In toast of new design 
 To make the exiles weep 
 And keep the world asleep 
 Anent the wrongs that steep 
 The tyrant Tartar's name 
 In infamy and shame. 
 
 But stay, why trembles he ? 
 What vision doth he see ? 
 No ghost in festive hall ; 
 No hand upon the wall. 
 To make his pleasures pall. 
 No fiend his eyes detect ; 
 No peasant to suspect. 
 Tried ministers attend, 
 Full foot and horse defend 
 
54 VISION AND PROPHFXY. 
 
 The throne and citadel 
 Where czar and kindred dwell, 
 And cordonned round the land 
 Grim guarding legions stand ! 
 Yet pales the czar with dread ! 
 He deems assassins tread, 
 With blade athirst and blast, 
 To drink his blood, and cast 
 In atoms to the sky 
 The halls of tyranny ! 
 
 The voice from Ural hills 
 
 Flamed forth hath gone in thrills 
 
 Of swiftest breezes blown 
 
 Along the northern zone. 
 
 And many leagues afar 
 
 In palace of the czar 
 
 With trembling terror fills, 
 
 To consternation chills 
 
 The ruler of the land. 
 
 And not invention planned 
 
 To keep supreme at home 
 
 His reign, if foes should come, — 
 
VISION AND PROPHECY. 55 
 
 And not ambitious schemes 
 That give him pleasant dreams 
 Of other lands to gain, 
 Of widening domain 
 To great increase of dower, 
 To boundlessness of power — . 
 Not one of these, nor all, 
 Can break the chilling thrall. 
 And drive the fiends away 
 That on his spirit prey ! 
 
 And evermore shall cling 
 
 Those fiends, and tear and sting. 
 
 And for new vigor drink 
 
 The ichor, black as ink. 
 
 Of veins of tyranny 
 
 That fed on liberty 
 
 Through many, many years, 
 
 Drank river floods of tears 
 
 And jeered a thousand sneers 
 
 At patriotic sighs 
 
 Drawn by a czar's emprise ! 
 
56 VISION AND PROPHECY. 
 
 After the burning spoke 
 And round the echoes woke 
 Responsive to the doom 
 The flame announced to come,- 
 Soft blazed the voice of truth, 
 In tones of tender ruth 
 Of love's sweet firmament, 
 A message eastward sent 
 By one appearing there 
 From out the upper air, 
 Who seemed to high emprise 
 Commissioned by the skies. 
 He wore that loveliness 
 That doth high worth express 
 In angel or in men 
 Of angel mien and ken. 
 
 Away on zephyrs borne, 
 He came at tinge of morn 
 To bleak Siberian strand, 
 The northern demonland. 
 There imps abound in air 
 Who give their constant care 
 
f 
 
 VISION AND PROPHECY. 57 
 
 That when the tyrants die 
 Some sprite of ill shall fly 
 To convoy them to hell, 
 Reporting there how well 
 They have performed the work 
 The monarch of the murk 
 Assigns, and thus how far 
 They have obeyed the czar. 
 
 From spirit of the sky 
 The imps affrighted fly. 
 And well escaped his might, 
 They pause them in their flight 
 And hiss in powerless ire 
 Their breath of spiteful fire, 
 That freezes on the air. 
 And now they backward fare, 
 To see if stranger sprite 
 Shall think him to alight. 
 And soon he turns to fly, 
 That bright one of the sky, 
 His plumage to begiime, 
 Down through the jagged rime 
 
58 VISION AND PROPHECY. 
 
 Of rock where guardsmen pace 
 To keep the exile race. 
 Deep where they delve in mines 
 And sunshine never shines, 
 He comes to drive the gloom 
 That overhangs this tomb 
 Of Russian liberty, 
 This Bastile of the free ! 
 And this the word of cheer 
 The toilers, listening, hear: 
 ''Good patience, still, ye braves 
 Condemned to fate of slaves ! 
 Against Oppression's throne, 
 The Mighty makes His own 
 The cause of those w^ho, long 
 In suffering, still are strong." 
 
 Glad on his herald tongue 
 The delvers hopeful hung. 
 Yet scarce could angel's cheer 
 Dispel an exile's fear. 
 
VISION AND PROPHECY. 59 
 
 Forth then the voice of flame. 
 
 And soon a lovelier came, 
 
 An angel with this word: 
 
 "The message ye have heard 
 
 Was told to me in heaven 
 
 Whence all good gifts are given. 
 
 So strange 'twas thought 'twould seem, 
 
 So fanciful the dream, 
 
 Another one was sent 
 
 Attesting the intent 
 
 Of powers above to bless 
 
 With buoyance in duress 
 
 And exodus from chains 
 
 To Freedom's fair domains." 
 
 The angel ceased and drew 
 A stylus forth of hue 
 Of the cerulean blue 
 And ruby stone and white, 
 And straight began to write 
 Upon the prison mine 
 With deep cut lustrous sign. 
 
6o VISION AND PROPHECY. 
 
 No words the delving said, 
 
 But breathless watched and read. 
 
 And forth the angel fled. 
 
 Came then a third, to say, 
 "Toilers, ye have seen to-day 
 Two of the seven prized most 
 Of the selectest host 
 Of all the armies bright 
 Bannered in realms of light. 
 Aflame with brightest star, 
 That host ten thousand are, 
 With place of honor given 
 The thousand best of heaven. 
 They who the most have blessed. 
 As heaven's accounts attest, 
 The sorrowing ones of earth, 
 And honored most true worth. 
 And those a hundred best 
 Have placed before the rest. 
 The hundred giving seven 
 Most pleasing unto Heaven 
 
VISION AND PROPHECY. 6l 
 
 The highest, foremost place 
 Of all the angel race. 
 
 ''And of this number, one 
 Is Uriel of the sun; 
 And Raphael gracious is 
 And giv^en to ministries, 
 And most sublimities 
 Hath missioned been to see, 
 And most of misery. 
 The first your boon to tell 
 Was flaming Uriel, 
 And Raphael who came 
 To witness Uriel's flame 
 And cheer with face benign 
 The delvers in this mine. 
 
 " Led Israfil the throng 
 In that first Christmas song 
 That told the waiting earth 
 Of a Redeemer's birth. 
 And he and all the seven 
 From out the weeping heaven 
 
62 VISION AND PROPHECY. 
 
 Flown sad, in sympathy 
 And wondering tears, to see 
 The dread sublimity 
 Of rugged Calvary, 
 Stayed sentinels and kept 
 The tomb where Jesus slept — 
 The loveliest of the sky. 
 Who gave Himself to die. 
 And their rejoicing eyes 
 Beheld the Saviour rise 
 And saw the earliest ray 
 That tinged an Easter day. 
 
 "Not oft do mortals see 
 
 In quick succession three 
 
 Celestial ones, as ye 
 
 This day have seen and heard 
 
 In glad prophetic word. 
 
 Yet men this truth may know. 
 
 That for each want and woe 
 
 Some angel waits above 
 
 Commissioned by the Love 
 
 Supreme, to fly and prove 
 
VISION AND PROPHECY. 6^ 
 
 With blessings from the skies 
 
 That He is kind and wise 
 
 And doth permit the stress, 
 
 To give Him chance to bless 
 
 And those who suffer, place 
 
 To struggle into grace 
 
 Of goodness and the dower 
 
 Of perfectness of power. 
 
 Whoso behaveth right 
 
 Whatever be his plight , 
 
 Whoever thinketh bright, 
 
 Important, happy thing 
 
 To say, or paint, or sing. 
 
 Hath influence from the sky, 
 
 And voice to ask him try 
 
 Unto the highest, best 
 
 One may and should, thus blessed, 
 
 To make both fine and strong 
 
 The word, the tint, the song. 
 
 Who heedeth first, hath more 
 
 Of the celestial store 
 
 That gives uplift from trite 
 
 To new, from slough to height. 
 
64 VISION AND PROPHECY. 
 
 From weakness unto might, 
 From dryness, deadness, blight, 
 To bud and leaf and bloom 
 That hint of Junes to come. 
 O gracious boundlessness 
 Of Heaven's power to bless ! 
 
 ''Keep sweet, O patriots, ye 
 
 In this hard slavery. 
 
 And some day ye shall see 
 
 The tyrant bend the knee 
 
 To ask for leave to fly, 
 
 By conscience scourged, to die 
 
 Beneath this bitter sky ! 
 
 Here, where the clank of chains 
 
 Doth fright Siberian plains 
 
 To barrenness and dearth 
 
 Unknown elsewhere on earth — 
 
 Here, where such blight has blown 
 
 Forever from the zone 
 
 Of doubt, that all the air 
 
 Is dense with chill despair ! " 
 
VISION AND PROPHECY. 65 
 
 Seen or invisible, 
 
 As seemeth to them well, 
 
 The spirits come to tell 
 
 The words of wrath or love 
 
 That emanate above. 
 
 And though alert to sounds 
 
 And sights that vex their rounds, 
 
 The guardsmen of the mines. 
 
 Sworn to the czar's designs, 
 
 Saw not those whose emprise 
 
 Was threatening from the skies, 
 
 Though came they bright as stars 
 
 To speak the doom of czars. 
 
 But read the guards in mine 
 
 The deeply-written sign, 
 
 And sent a message far 
 
 To citadel of czar. 
 
 And he to frenzy tiew 
 
 And worse each moment grew. 
 
 Imperial mandate given, 
 
 The royal guards had striven 
 
 The writing to erase. 
 
 But none could yet efface 
 
66 VISION AND PROPHECY. 
 
 Indictment graven there 
 By one of upper air. 
 And livid in that mine 
 Fierce glistened still each line : 
 
 " For Foia?id's cup of gall 
 The Russian throne must fall^ 
 Unless the czar s repent 
 Before the firmament 
 And prove sincere ifitent 
 To eying stars, that see 
 What is sincerity 
 Aiid will 710 fleeting mood 
 Of tears for years of blood. 
 They ask cont^Htion due 
 And that, to honor true, 
 The tyrants right the wrofig 
 Their hate hath done so long, 
 And do the people s choice. 
 And make their hearts rejoice, 
 And make the throne their voice 
 
 The czar a chemist sent, 
 AVho with fierce caustics went. 
 
VISION AND PROPHECY. 67 
 
 To eat the message out 
 That so had put to rout 
 The pleasure of the czar, 
 And toiled from dawn to star 
 With fiery rust and bar. 
 
 Homeward a horseman flew, 
 And this the message true : 
 " No science can begin. 
 Nor skilJ, the race to win — 
 The words are burning in ! " 
 Some straying peasant heard 
 The courier's fateful word 
 Reported to the lord 
 Chief courtier of the king. 
 And all the people sing. 
 And children join the din, 
 " The 7U07'ds aj^e burning in !'' 
 
 x\gain the man with bar 
 And blast to please the czar, 
 And tear the message out. 
 Of which the people shout. 
 
68 VISION AND PROPHECY. 
 
 And with his mission o'er, 
 Reports he as before : 
 "A span, a foot, a rod — 
 Swift science doth but plod. 
 The words do inward fly 
 As missioned from llie sky ! " 
 
 In rage the monarch flew. 
 The alchemist he slew, 
 And sent another still. 
 With threat to chain and kill 
 Did he not burn or tear 
 That message of despair. 
 And with him fared a guard 
 That no one should retard. 
 Nor scientist should flee 
 If unsuccessful he. 
 Returned, he trembling said, 
 As forth the guardsmen led 
 Him, strongly held and bound, 
 To slay if faithless found : 
 "A foot, an ell, a rod — 
 The message writ of God 
 
VISION AND PROPHECY. 69 
 
 About a nation's sin 
 Is further burning in ! " 
 
 The guardsmen aim to fire ! 
 The monarch cries, " Retire 
 With him in heavy chains 
 To wildest northern plains ! 
 The recreant's mocking breath 
 Must not the ease of death ! " 
 
 Fruitless the despot's plan 
 
 Of banishing the man. 
 
 Borne by the ready airs, 
 
 That message onward fares 
 
 Through scenes of joy and dearth 
 
 Around the peopled earth ! 
 
 Hills tell it unto fen, 
 
 The wilds to homes of men, 
 
 The mountain to the moor, 
 
 The robin at the door 
 
 Of cottage and of hall — 
 
 That broken soon the thrall 
 
 Of Russian slaves will be. 
 
70 VISION AND PROPHECY. 
 
 And joy of Liberty ! 
 
 And chant the brooks and birds, 
 
 '' The angel-written words 
 
 About a nation's sin 
 
 Are ever burning in ! " 
 
 And other birds are singing 
 
 In every morn of winging, 
 
 In every noon of flying 
 
 For food forbirdlings crying, 
 
 And eve of homeward hieing 
 
 To nest, and rest, and love, 
 
 A message from above 
 
 Befitting lark or dove 
 
 To sing in all the earth ; 
 
 ''Man's greatest wealth, his worth. 
 
 His unearned plenty, dearth ; 
 
 His best of liberty, 
 
 Deserving to be free." 
 
 Still other birds that fly 
 
 And sing, they know not wh}", 
 
 Thus cheer, inspire and warn 
 
VISION AND PROPHECY. 
 
 At eve and happy morn : 
 
 " Whatever first success, 
 
 What flatterers address, 
 
 How fondly love caress, 
 
 How praiseth selfishness 
 
 That hopes returns to bless, 
 
 Whatever is the stress 
 
 Of noyance that doth press, 
 
 War waged for wrong is wrong, 
 
 And weak and never strong. 
 
 And weak is war for might ; 
 
 But ever finds true knight 
 
 All powerful war for right; 
 
 For God is in the fight ! 
 
 Though right should lose the fray, 
 
 And victory delay. 
 
 Yet surely comes the day 
 
 Of victory to stay. 
 
 And show that right hath might, 
 
 For God is in the fight ! 
 
A WARNING TO COLUMBIA. 
 
 T3UT briefly where it sung 
 
 The sentient glowing hung. 
 Then over seas it came, 
 The fearless warning flame, 
 And o'er Potomac's tide 
 In indignation cried, 
 As, eying halls of state, 
 Mid-air the burnino: sate. 
 Self-poised in conscious truth 
 And sense of lasting youth : 
 " For shame, Columbia, shame ! 
 Bedimming thy bright name 
 By leaguing with the power 
 That claims by heavenly dower 
 Each individual soul 
 Of lands in his control, 
 With right to dominate, 
 Unto severest fate 
 Those bending not the knee 
 At nod of tyranny ! 
 
A WARNING TO COLUMBIA. 73 
 
 " Why dost thou promise, why, 
 That when to thee shall fly 
 Those fortunate to break 
 Their bondage and to take 
 Across the seas their w^ay, 
 West guided by the ray 
 Of freedom, to thy land, 
 They shall be held for hand 
 Of czar, whose wrath they flee 
 To fly in hope to thee ? 
 These sent to despot back, 
 To dungeon and to rack. 
 For holding but the thought 
 That ill the tyrant wrought 
 In Russian robber rout 
 That blotted nations out! 
 In league, Columbia, why, 
 With Russian tyranny? " 
 
 In silence, then, the flame, 
 To -hear if answer came 
 From out Columbian hall. 
 And, saying " Deaf to all 
 
74 "O PATRIOTS, PURE AND STRONG. 
 
 And to thy past untrue," 
 The lustre, sighing, flew 
 To welcome of the blue. 
 That bent, sad questioning, 
 And bade the birds to sing. 
 And brooks. — "Columbia, why 
 In league with tyranny?" 
 
 O PATRIOTS, PURE AND STRONG. 
 
 r\ PATRIOTS, pure and strong. 
 
 And waiting now so long 
 Surcease of this hard fate, 
 Wait on, for God doth wait ! 
 For Christ, when in the fate 
 O'er which all nature wept 
 And Heaven sad vigils kept. 
 His slayers could forgive, 
 And died that they might live. 
 
■' O PATRIOTS, PURE AND STRONG.' 75 
 
 He shed in death the tears 
 That permeate the years 
 And ever plead with man 
 The beauty of the plan 
 Of giving bread for blows, 
 For thorn the thornless rose 
 Of love that sweeter grows 
 Through trials oft and sore — 
 That, wounded o'er and o'er, 
 Doth from its fragrant store 
 The balm of good disburse. 
 And blessing breathe for curse. 
 
 God's greatest name is Love; 
 His carrier bird, the dove. 
 Yet His the eagle is, 
 And all the majesties 
 Of all the life of earth. 
 Since far creation's birth ! 
 He gave the tiger power. 
 Leviathan his dower. 
 To lash the seas to rage 
 And mighty ships engage. 
 
76 "O PATRIOTS, PURE AND STRONG/ 
 
 He taught the earth to quake, 
 
 And made the mountains shake. 
 
 'Twas He created light 
 
 And piled the Alpine height. 
 
 He set the rhythmic spheres 
 
 To cadence of the years 
 
 Of the eternity 
 
 He gave the right to be ! 
 
 His Christ of Olivet 
 
 And Galilee used yet 
 
 A scourge ; His Moses saw 
 
 The lightnings of the law 
 
 From Sinai blaze, to tell 
 
 That with Jehovah dwell 
 
 All powers, and it is well 
 
 With those alone who fear 
 
 Him, and in truth sincere, 
 
 Hold all His statutes dear, 
 
 Who live for righteousness. 
 
 And never to oppress. 
 
 And He, if stubborn prove 
 
 The czars to pleas of love, 
 
 Will thunder in His wrath 
 
"O PATRIOTS, PURE AND STRONG." 77 
 
 And plow with war a path 
 Through tyranny's domains 
 And break the exile's chains, 
 And lead each patriot band 
 To home and native land. 
 
 Fail not, protesting rhyme 
 Against the Russian crime, 
 Fail not his worth to sing, 
 Who, once in Russia king, 
 Had righted much of wrong. 
 Had not the furious throng 
 Smote Alexander down 
 And set the Russian crown 
 Against the Polish cause 
 Of Liberty's good laws. 
 But Polish patriots see 
 A crime in anarchy. 
 No vengeance on their foes 
 Would they ; but thornless rose 
 And white, and every flower 
 Of Peace for those whose power 
 Hath been so long the ban 
 
78 '' O PATRIOTS, PURE AND STRONG.' 
 
 Of Russia and of man ! 
 
 Unselfish in their grief, 
 
 These patriots seek relief 
 
 For all who feel 
 
 The tyrant's iron heel. 
 
 To people of the realm 
 
 They seek to give the helm 
 
 Of Russian power, 
 
 As rightful dower. 
 
 Nor charge they the rod 
 
 Of tyranny to God. 
 
 And spurn they the extremes 
 
 Of the ill-visioned dreams 
 
 Of those anarchic fools 
 
 Whom wild unwisdom rules. 
 
 They of that base alloy 
 
 Which nerves men to destroy, — 
 
 Gives them the greed to kill 
 
 And scent for blood to spill. 
 
A PILGRIMAGE OF CZARS. 
 
 'VXTILL tyrants turn, who make 
 
 Their chief delight to break 
 The patriotic heart, 
 And name their crime an art ! 
 Yet grant imagination scope. 
 And patience chance to hope 
 That czars be won to sense 
 Of need of penitence. 
 Or scourged until they see 
 How wrong the cruelty 
 That gives to Poland tears, 
 And damns a thousand years ! 
 
 Should miracle be done 
 The greatest under sun. 
 The visioned stars have seen. 
 And czars repentance mean — 
 Go, czars, by conscience sent. 
 Go honored to repent. 
 Go with your burden bent, 
 
8o A PILGRIMAGE OF CZARS. 
 
 Go any way ye must, 
 Go, if through thorns and dust 
 Go, if with heavy chains 
 Like exiles o'er the plains ! 
 Go, grateful that you may ; 
 Go seek fit place to pray, 
 Go where the zephyrs say 
 That sigh from heaven's way ! 
 Go, foes of liberty. 
 And fall on suppliant knee 
 Where dust of Kracut is 
 'Mid Cracow's mysteries, 
 The first of Polish kings 
 The muse of History sings. 
 The Slavic chief of time 
 Ere czars had cursed his clime. 
 There, pleading not the claim 
 Of royalty or fame. 
 But only His good name 
 Who gave the one relief 
 That owned himself a thief — 
 There tell the skies your sin, 
 Aware as ve begin 
 
BY Kosciusko's dust. 8i 
 
 That Christ, the ever kind, 
 With justice mild, consigned 
 To millstone and the sea 
 The unwept tyranny 
 Of Pharisees of old, 
 To whom ye likeness hold. 
 Kneel then in Cracow, where 
 The soul of Wanda fair 
 Doth frequent still the air 
 Above the hill that claims 
 Sweetest of Polish names. 
 And ask you there of Heaven 
 If czars can be forgiven ! 
 
 BY KOSCIUSKO'S DUST. 
 
 'T^HEN, with this pleading done, 
 
 If beams benignant sun, 
 Or if for you there shine 
 A ray of star benign; 
 Then seek another grave, 
 
82 BY Kosciusko's dust. 
 
 His place whom Heaven gave 
 
 To show to czars and earth 
 
 A Polish patriot's worth, 
 
 And sent to aid, in youth, 
 
 Columbia's cause of truth. 
 
 By Kosciusko's rest 
 
 Your prayers addressed 
 
 The Heaven of Liberty, 
 
 Ye may forgiven be 
 
 Of Heaven and of the free. 
 
 There hear from far the cry 
 
 Of those who hope, or try 
 
 To hope, before they die 
 
 To see once more the home 
 
 From whence dear memories come. 
 
 O ! memories that burn 
 
 And into torments turn ! 
 
 And still the patriots yearn 
 
 For once to grasp the hand 
 
 Of kindred in the land 
 
 Of Kosciusko's birth, 
 
 The dearest land of earth ! 
 
BY KOSCIUSKO S DUST, 
 
 O, cruel tyranny ! 
 
 That freemen may not see 
 
 For once the boyhood farm, 
 
 Sweet with the pet brook's charm ; 
 
 For once the childhood cot, 
 
 For once the play-place grot, 
 
 For once the daisied mead, 
 
 For once two paths to lead, 
 
 As once, to trysting place 
 
 Of bravery and of grace ! 
 
 For once the grassy mound 
 
 That love's fair roses crowned ! 
 
 There Linka's ashes lie. 
 
 Who had the choice to die 
 
 Or tell the tyrant's spy. 
 
 When by His Highness bid, 
 
 Of patriot Pavel hid ! 
 
 And there's the outlook hill, 
 
 And there the near-by rill. 
 
 And there the other stream, 
 
 Whose unforgotten gleam 
 
 Inspired the boyhood dream 
 
 Of busv, stirrine life. 
 
84 BY Kosciusko's dust. 
 
 Of joy in hardest strife, 
 Of earning high success, 
 Of coming home to bless. 
 With nobly won largess. 
 The village where in joy 
 Erstwhile dwelt the boy ! 
 
 Instead, condemned to pine 
 Imprisoned in a mine, 
 For that high quality 
 That fits men to be free. 
 
 Where Kosciusko lies. 
 Best of the sanctities 
 Of the Sarmatian land, 
 There, tyrants, stand, 
 There, tyrants, kneel. 
 And well the honor feel ! 
 There, ye who give a slave 
 The right to choose his grave. 
 The felon, who atones. 
 With hempen halter, groans 
 He caused, the right to say 
 
BY Kosciusko's dust. 85 
 
 Where ye his bones shall lay- 
 There, by Kosciusko's dust, 
 Be honest, once, and just ! 
 There talk repentant czars, 
 With conscience and the stars ! 
 Tell stars and conscience why 
 In vain do freemen cry 
 To you for boon of serf, 
 For one green stretch of turf, 
 Where, from foreign strand 
 Sent back to native land — . 
 Where, if not given breath 
 At home, they may at death 
 Be sent to final rest. 
 To slumber unoppressed ! 
 
 Cannot endure the stars ? 
 Why, there's a place, ye czars, 
 Where stars do never shine, 
 And whence no royal line 
 Or peasant cometh back 
 By straight or devious track — 
 But onward still m_ust fare 
 
86 i;v Kosciusko's dust. 
 
 Whoever goeth there ! 
 And there's another, too, 
 Where stars are never due, 
 But lurid lightnings glare. 
 And demons rule the air ; 
 And hither none shall fare 
 That ever enter there ! 
 And there's another still 
 Of flowery plain and hill 
 Of Sion, blest abode 
 Of angels and of God ! 
 And of the saints who rise 
 From earth's hard agonies 
 To freedom of the skies ! 
 
 There song of streams that flow 
 Attuned to airs that blow 
 With spicy odors blessed, 
 The very rhythm of rest, 
 To souls that need repose. 
 And stimulus to those 
 Who, calmed and strong, aspire 
 Unto tumultuous lyre. 
 
WARNINGS FROM ELDER DAYS. 87 
 
 And theirs a theme to fill 
 The heavens with joy, until 
 Enraptured o'er the song, 
 The very groves prolong 
 The joy and join to sing, 
 With birds of every wing. 
 But, untransformed by grace 
 To fitness for the place, 
 In heaven no tyrants live ; 
 For heavenly blisses give 
 Such influence that 'twere hell 
 For tyrants there to dwell. 
 
 WARNINGS FROM ELDER DAYS. 
 
 'T^HINK not, unthinking czars, 
 
 To contradict the stars ! 
 For they have lived to see 
 Too much of history 
 To deign to a reply 
 When even Russians lie ! 
 
WARNINGS FROM ELDER DAYS. 
 
 Boast not your hosts in arms, 
 That give the world alarms. 
 For steel-clad giants are 
 But pigmies to a star. 
 Stars laugh at all your power 
 And point to Shinar's tower, 
 That was, and Babylon 
 That boasted to the sun 
 Of her Chaldean might, 
 And held the world in fright. 
 And perished in a night ! 
 And but her ruins tell 
 Of Babylon that fell ! 
 
 And point the stars, to king 
 Of whom but furies sing, 
 The Herod throned of yore, 
 But cursed forevermore 
 In street and cloister lore. 
 
 From scanning these 
 
 Look back to Rameses, 
 
 Whom and whose like eave tears 
 
WARNINGS FROM ELDER DAYS. 89 
 
 For twice two hundred years 
 
 To chosen sons of God. 
 
 And these condemned to plod, 
 
 Scourged by oppression's rod 
 
 That grew by gore, 
 
 These through their bondage sore 
 
 Upon God's promise fed, 
 
 Till, brave enough, they fled, 
 
 By visioned shepherd led. 
 
 And now the sea before 
 Withholds from freedom's shore, 
 And prisoning mountains stand 
 To hold for Pharaoh's hand ! 
 But look ! the flood divides. 
 Heaven holds apart the tides ! 
 The fugitives pass through ! 
 Menephtah's hosts pursue ; 
 But fierce returning waves 
 Whelm in their watery graves 
 Ruler, horsemen, all — 
 A wreck that hints the fall 
 Of the Egyptian throne, 
 
90 WARNINGS FROM ELDER DAYS. 
 
 O'er which in warning moan 
 The ages sweep, to say 
 That tyrants pass away ! 
 
 Man's title to be free 
 Is writ in history, 
 And finds, to prove it, given 
 The very truth of Heaven. 
 And, sweet as favoring word 
 By wooing Honor heard. 
 The song of brook and bird 
 And Zephyr's minstrelsy 
 Are music of the free. 
 So everything decries 
 The despot's tyrannies. 
 In waking life of spring. 
 When glad the robins sing ; 
 In the persuasive breath 
 Of June from flowery heath ; 
 In airs that sweeten shade 
 Of pleasant wooded glade 
 And move the fairy ferns 
 To dance bv merrv burns ; 
 
WARNINGS FROM ELDER DAYS. 
 
 In Storms around the peaks 
 Where fierce the thunder speaks ; 
 In chill November's gale 
 That sweeps the frosted vale ; 
 In Ocean's sullen roar 
 On Winter's icy shore — 
 In all her ministries, 
 The voice of nature is 
 Rebuke of tyrannies. 
 
 In tender tones and mild, 
 As plaintive voice of child, 
 In clarion peal, and strong 
 As burst of lyric song; 
 Commanding, deep and slow 
 As centuries that flow 
 Through history 
 Toward eternity — 
 The olden warning word 
 Repeated, now is heard 
 In all the upward trend 
 To Consummation's end ; 
 The word in every wind, 
 
92 WARNINGS FROM ELDER DAYS. 
 
 The word in every mind, 
 But yours, audacious czars, 
 Who contradict the stars — 
 '^ Let ye my people go ! 
 Let ye the exiles go ! " 
 
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LBRARY OF CONGRESS