They shall go down unto Life's Borderland, <br />Walk unafraid within that Living Hell, <br />Nor heed the driving rain of shot and shell <br />That 'round them falls; but with uplifted hand <br />Be one with mighty hosts, an arméd band <br />Against man's wrong to man--for such full well <br />They know. And from their trembling lips shall swell <br />A song of hope the world can understand. <br />All this to them shall be a glorious sign, <br />A glimmer of that resurrection morn, <br />When age-long Faith crowned with a grace benign <br />Shall rise and from their brows cast down the thorn <br />Of prejudice. E'en though through blood it be, <br />There breaks this day their dawn of Liberty.<br /><br />Joseph Seamon Cotter<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/sonnet-to-negro-soldiers/
