UP, laggards of Freedom! — our free flag is cast <br />To the blaze of the sun and the wings of the blast; <br />Will ye turn from a struggle so bravely begun, <br />From a foe that is breaking, a field that's half won? <br />Whoso loves not his kind, and who fears not the Lord, <br />Let him join that foe's service, accursed and abhorred! <br />Let him do his base will, as the slave only can, — <br />Let him put on the bloodhound, and put off the Man! <br />Let him go where the cold blood that creeps in his veins <br />Shall stiffen the slave-whip, and rust on his chains; <br />Where the black slave shall laugh in his bonds, to behold <br />The White Slave beside him, self-lettered and sold! <br />But ye, who still boast of hearts beating and warm, <br />Rise, from lake shore and ocean's, like waves in a storm, <br />Come, throng round our banner in Liberty's name, <br />Like winds from your mountains, like prairies aflame! <br />Our foe, hidden long in his ambush of night, <br />Now, forced from his covert, stands black in the light. <br />Oh, the cruel to Man, and the hateful to God, <br />Smite him down to the earth, that is cursed where he trod! <br />For deeper than thunder of summer's loud shower, <br />On the dome of the sky God is striking the hour! <br />Shall we falter before what we're prayed for so long, <br />When the Wrong is so weak, and the Right is so strong? <br />Come forth all together! come old and come young, <br />Freedom's vote in each hand, and her song on each tongue; <br />Truth naked is stronger than Falsehood in mail; <br />The Wrong cannot prosper, the Right cannot fail! <br />Like leaves of the summer once numbered the foe, <br />But the hoar-frost is falling, the northern winds blow; <br />Like leaves of November erelong shall they fall, <br />For earth wearies of them, and God's over all!<br /><br />John Greenleaf Whittier<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-song-for-the-time/
