Page:Poems Jones.djvu/141

  Ah, then fierce madness came;
   (Be free, I said!)
  The air was hot with flame,
   The rivers below ran red;
For the guns did roar from shore to shore,
   And the heart of the nation bled:
   Be free, I said.

  Down fell the slaver's whip,
   (Be free, I said!)
  And clanking chains did slip
   From limbs that shook with dread;
While the burning breath of that wind of death,
   At the smile of Jehovah, fled:
   Be free, I said.

  Then all the people bowed;
   (Be free, I said:)
  For the bolt that hissed in the cloud
   From God's right hand had sped;
But heaven grew bright with sevenfold light,
   For the sake of the royal dead:
   Be free, I said.

  O nation of my hope,
   Live long! I said;
  With the lines of thy horoscope
   A threefold splendor is wed;