IT shall flash through coming ages; <br />It shall light the distant years; <br />And eyes now dim with sorrow <br />Shall be clearer through their tears. <br /> <br />It shall flush the mountain ranges; <br />And the valleys shall grow bright; <br />It shall bathe the hills in radiance, <br />And crown their brows with light. <br /> <br />It shall flood with golden splendor <br />All the huts of Caroline, <br />And the sun-kissed brow of labor <br />With lustre new shall shine. <br /> <br />It shall gild the gloomy prison, <br />Darken'd by the nation's crime, <br />Where the dumb and patient millions <br />Wait the better coming time. <br /> <br />By the light that gilds their prison, <br />They shall seize its mould'ring key, <br />And the bolts and bars shall vibrate <br />With the triumphs of the free. <br /> <br />Like the dim and ancient chaos, <br />Shrinking from the dawn of light, <br />Oppression, grim and hoary, <br />Shall cower at the sight. <br /> <br />And her spawn of lies and malice <br />Shall grovel in the dust, <br />While joy shall thrill the bosoms <br />Of the merciful and just. <br /> <br />Though the morning seemed to linger <br />O'er the hill-tops far away, <br />Now the shadows bear the promise <br />Of the quickly coming day. <br /> <br />Soon the mists and murky shadows <br />Shall be fringed with crimson light, <br />And the glorious dawn of freedom <br />Break refulgent on the sight.<br /><br />Frances Ellen Watkins Harper<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/president-lincoln-s-proclamation-of-freedom/
