Lift ev'ry voice and sing, <br />Till earth and heaven ring, <br />Ring with the harmonies of Liberty; <br />Let our rejoicing rise <br />High as the list'ning skies, <br />Let it resound loud as the rolling sea. <br />Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us, <br />Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us; <br />Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, <br />Let us march on till victory is won. <br /> <br />Stony the road we trod, <br />Bitter the chast'ning rod, <br />Felt in the days when hope unborn had died; <br />Yet with a steady beat, <br />Have not our weary feet <br />Come to the place for which our fathers sighed? <br />We have come over a way that with tears has been watered. <br />We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered, <br />Out from the gloomy past, <br />Till now we stand at last <br />Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast. <br /> <br />God of our weary years, <br />God of our silent tears, <br />Thou who hast brought us thus far on the way; <br />Thou who hast by Thy might, <br />Led us into the light, <br />Keep us forever in the path, we pray. <br />Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee, <br />Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee; <br />Shadowed beneath Thy hand, <br />May we forever stand, <br />True to our God, <br />True to our native land.<br /><br />James Weldon Johnson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/lift-every-voice-and-sing/
