A MORNING crowns the Western hill, <br />A day begins to reign, <br />A sun awakes o’er distant seas— <br />Shall never sleep again. <br />The world is growing old, <br />And men are waxing wise; <br />A mist has cleared—a something falls <br />Like scales from off their eyes. <br /> <br />Too long the “Dark of Ignorance” <br />Has brooded on their way; <br />Too long Oppression ’s stood before, <br />Excluding light of day. <br />But now they’ve found the track <br />And now they’ve seen the dawn, <br />A “beacon lamp” is pointing on, <br />Where stronger glows the morn. <br /> <br />Since Adam lived, the mighty ones <br />Have ever ruled the weak; <br />Since Noah’s flood, the fettered slave <br />Has seldom dared to speak. <br />’Tis time a voice was heard, <br />’Tis time a voice was spoken <br />So in the chain of tyranny <br />A link or two be broken. <br /> <br />A tiny rill will swell a stream, <br />A spark will cause a flame, <br />And one man’s burning eloquence <br />Has help’d to do the same. <br />And he will persevere, <br />And soon that blaze must spread, <br />Till to the corners of the earth <br />Reflecting beams are shed. <br /> <br />The “few” will try to beat it down, <br />But can they stop the flood— <br />Bind up the pinions of the light, <br />Or check the will of God? <br />And is it not His will <br />That deeply injured Right <br />Should overthrow the iron rule <br />And reign instead of Might?<br /><br />Henry Kendall<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/extempore-lines/
