Once I wished I might rehearse <br />Freedom's paean in my verse, <br />That the slave who caught the strain <br />Should throb until he snapped his chain. <br />But the Spirit said, 'Not so; <br />Speak it not, or speak it low; <br />Name not lightly to be said, <br />Gift too precious to be prayed, <br />Passion not to be expressed <br />But by heaving of the breast: <br />Yet,--wouldst thou the mountain find <br />Where this deity is shrined, <br />Who gives to seas and sunset skies <br />Their unspent beauty of surprise, <br />And, when it lists him, waken can <br />Brute or savage into man; <br />Or, if in thy heart he shine, <br />Blends the starry fates with thine, <br />Draws angels nigh to dwell with thee, <br />And makes thy thoughts archangels be; <br />Freedom's secret wilt thou know?-- <br />Counsel not with flesh and blood; <br />Loiter not for cloak or food; <br />Right thou feelest, rush to do.'<br /><br />Ralph Waldo Emerson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/freedom-254/
