Page:Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier (1895).djvu/324

292   With your bondman’s right arm bare, With his heart of black despair, Stand alone, if stand ye dare!

Onward with your fell design; Dig the gulf and draw the line: Fire beneath your feet the mine:

Deeply, when the wide abyss Yawns between your land and this, Shall ye feel your helplessness.

By the hearth, and in the bed, Shaken by a look or tread, Ye shall own a guilty dread.

And the curse of unpaid toil, Downward through your generous soil Like a fire shall burn and spoil.

Our bleak hills shall bud and blow, Vines our rocks shall overgrow, Plenty in our valleys flow;—

And when vengeance clouds your skies, Hither shall ye turn your eyes, As the lost on Paradise!

We but ask our rocky strand, Freedom’s true and brother band, Freedom’s strong and honest hand;

Valleys by the slave untrod, And the Pilgrim’s mountain sod, Blessed of our fathers’ God!”

though around thee blazes
 * No fiery rallying sign?

From all thy own high places,
 * Give heaven the light of thine!

What though unthrilled, unmoving,
 * The statesman stand apart,