Page:Poems of Emma Lazarus vol 2.djvu/23

6 The unimprisoned bird that finds the track  Through son-bathed space, to where his fellows dwell;  The martyr, granted respite from the rack,  The death-doomed victim pardoned from his cell, —  Such only know the joy these exiles gain, —  Life's sharpest rapture is surcease of pain.  Strange faces theirs, wherethrough the Orient sun  Gleams from the eyes and glows athwart the skin.  Grave lines of studious thought and purpose run  From curl-crowned forehead to dark-bearded chin.  And over all the seal is stamped thereon  Of anguish branded by a world of sin,  In fire and blood through ages on their name.  Their seal of glory and the Gentiles' shame.  Freedom to love the law that Moses brought,  To sing the songs of David, and to think <Br> The thoughts Gabirol to Spinoza taught. <Br> Freedom to dig the conunon earth, to drink <Br> The universal air—for this they sought <Br> Refuge o'er wave and continent, to link <Br> Egypt with Texas in their mystic chain. <Br> And truth's perpetual lamp forbid to wane. <Br>