Page:Poets of John Company.djvu/58

36

He is the friend of man who breaks the seal
 * The despot custom sets in deed and thought,

He labours generously for human weal
 * Who holds the omnipotence of fear as naught;

The winged mind will not to earth be brought,
 * 'Twill sink to clay if it imprisoned be;

For 'tis with high immortal longings fraught.
 * And these are dimmed or quenched eternally,

Until it feels the hand that sets its pinions free.

And woman hath endured, and still endures
 * Wrong, which her weakness and her woes should shield,

The slave and victim of the treacherous lures
 * Which wily arts, to man, the tyrant yield:

And here the sight of star, or flower, or field;
 * Or bird that journeys through the sunny air,

Or social bliss from woman has been sealed,
 * To her, the sky is dark, the earth is bare.

And Heaven's most hallowed breath pronounced forbidden fare.

But with prophetic ken, dispelling fears
 * Which haunt the mind that dwells on nature's plan.

The Bard beholds through mists of coming years
 * A rising spirit speaking peace to man,

The storm is passing, and the Rainbow's span
 * Stretcheth from North to South: the ebon car

Of darkness rolls away: the breezes fan
 * The infant dawn, and morning's herald star

Comes trembling into day: O! can the Sun be far?