Freedom. W HO dare reverse the glorious plan To be a crouching slave? When tempests sweep the sea; So, with his mind and deathless soul, Man is created free. But yet cloud-cradled lightnings sleep, And thunderbolts repose, While millions slaughtered kindred weep In agonizing woes. And tyrants laugh where Freedom dies, And songs exulting sing; While widows' wails and orphans' cries Make vale and mountain ring. Shall stern Oppression, wrapt in gloom, Its purple course still run, And make Earth but a hopeless tomb Revolving round the sun? Forbid, Great God of Truth and Grace! Thine awful vengeance spare; But speed the time when all our race True happiness may share. Immortal Freedom! stand thou forth, Thy potent sceptre wield, That it may be to moral worth A buckler and a shield. Let Virtue on thy standard shine, And Truth, the fairest gem That e'er was formed by Power divine, Adorn thy diadem. Let Justice mark thy grand career, That in his breast love, hope, and fear, Thy blessings rich diffuse to all; And freemen gather at thy call But while thy sons their fealty swear, Let not Ambition discord e'er Into thy councils fling. Lands of the earth in love unite. Then systems false, upheld by might, No more shall rage the fearful storm That steeps the world in blood, For mankind will sublimely form One glorious brotherhood. Poland. S the sun-light expires at the parting of day, Thy vales, that have pealed to the conflict aloud, And thy mountains and streams, have been crimsoned with blood. Mid the turmoil and tempest of carnage and woe, Till Oppression's black banner hung dismally o'er thee And Hope on the field lay expiring before thee! The mother hath kneeled for the life of her child, The hearts of the slaughtered have bled to the core, And that which was Poland is Poland no more! Shall thy children forever be wedded to pain? The voice of her anguish hath rung to the sky- |