The writings of John Greenleaf Whittier, Volume 3.
John Greenleaf Whittier, Ed.

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[79]
     O'er hypocritic cheek and brow
The crimson flush of shame shall glow:
     And all who for their native land
Are pledging life and heart and hand,
     Worn watchers o'er her changing weal,
Who for her tarnished honor feel,
     Through cottage door and council-hall
Shall thunder an awakening call.
     The pen along its page shall burn
With all intolerable scorn;
     An eloquent rebuke shall go
On all the winds that Southward blow;
     From priestly lips, now sealed and dumb,
Warning and dread appeal shall come,
     Like those which Israel heard from him,
The Prophet of the Cherubim;
     Or those which sad Esaias hurled
Against a sin-accursed world!
     Its wizard leaves the Press shall fling
Unceasing from its iron wing,
     With characters inscribed thereon,
As fearful in the despot's hall
     As to the pomp of Babylon
The fire-sign on the palace wall!

And, from her dark iniquities,
     Methinks I see my country rise:
Not challenging the nations round
     To note her tardy justice done;
Her captives from their chains unbound,
     Her prisons opening to the sun:
But tearfully her arms extending
     Over the poor and unoffending;
Her regal emblem now no longer