Anti-Slavery Poems and Songs of Labor and Reform, Complete

IN THE EVIL DAYS.

This and the four following poems have special reference to that darkest hour in the aggression of slavery which preceded the dawn of a better day, when the conscience of the people was roused to action.

     THE evil days have come, the poor
     Are made a prey;
     Bar up the hospitable door,
     Put out the fire-lights, point no more
     The wanderer's way.

     For Pity now is crime; the chain
     Which binds our States
     Is melted at her hearth in twain,
     Is rusted by her tears' soft rain
     Close up her gates.

     Our Union, like a glacier stirred
     By voice below,
     Or bell of kine, or wing of bird,
     A beggar's crust, a kindly word
     May overthrow!

     Poor, whispering tremblers! yet we boast
     Our blood and name;
     Bursting its century-bolted frost,
     Each gray cairn on the Northman's coast
     Cries out for shame!

     Oh for the open firmament,
     The prairie free,
     The desert hillside, cavern-rent,
     The Pawnee's lodge, the Arab's tent,
     The Bushman's tree!

     Than web of Persian loom most rare,
     Or soft divan,
     Better the rough rock, bleak and bare,
     Or hollow tree, which man may share
     With suffering man.

     I hear a voice: "Thus saith the Law,
     Let Love be dumb;
     Clasping her liberal hands in awe,
     Let sweet-lipped Charity withdraw
     From hearth and home."

     I hear another voice: "The poor
     Are thine to feed;
     Turn not the outcast from thy door,
     Nor give to bonds and wrong once more
     Whom God hath freed."

     Dear Lord! between that law and Thee
     No choice remains;
     Yet not untrue to man's decree,
     Though spurning its rewards, is he
     Who bears its pains.

     Not mine Sedition's trumpet-blast
     And threatening word;
     I read the lesson of the Past,
     That firm endurance wins at last
     More than the sword.

     O clear-eyed Faith, and Patience thou
     So calm and strong!
     Lend strength to weakness, teach us how
     The sleepless eyes of God look through
     This night of wrong.

     1850.