Page:Memoir and poems of Phillis Wheatley, a native African and a slave.djvu/137

Rh Come Liberty, thou cheerful sound,

Roll through my ravished ears!

Come, let my grief in joys be drowned,

And drive away my fears.

Say unto foul oppression, Cease:

Ye tyrants rage no more,

And let the joyful trump of peace,

Now bid the vassal soar.

Soar on the pinions of that dove

Which long has cooed for thee,

And breathed her notes from Afric's grove,

The sound of Liberty.

Oh, Liberty! thou golden prize,

So often sought by blood—

We crave thy sacred sun to rise,

The gift of nature's God!

Bid Slavery hide her haggard face,

And barbarism fly:

I scorn to see the sad disgrace

In which enslaved I lie.

Dear Liberty! upon thy breast,

I languish to respire;

And like the Swan unto her nest,

I'd to thy smiles retire.

Oh, blest asylum—heavenly balm!

Unto thy boughs I flee—