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

THE PROCLAMATION.

President Lincoln's proclamation of emancipation was issued January 1, 1863.

     SAINT PATRICK, slave to Milcho of the herds
     Of Ballymena, wakened with these words
     "Arise, and flee
     Out from the land of bondage, and be free!"

     Glad as a soul in pain, who hears from heaven
     The angels singing of his sins forgiven,
     And, wondering, sees
     His prison opening to their golden keys,

     He rose a man who laid him down a slave,
     Shook from his locks the ashes of the grave,
     And outward trod
     Into the glorious liberty of God.

     He cast the symbols of his shame away;
     And, passing where the sleeping Milcho lay,
     Though back and limb
     Smarted with wrong, he prayed, "God pardon
     him!"

     So went he forth; but in God's time he came
     To light on Uilline's hills a holy flame;
     And, dying, gave
     The land a saint that lost him as a slave.

     O dark, sad millions, patiently and dumb
     Waiting for God, your hour at last has come,
     And freedom's song
     Breaks the long silence of your night of wrong!

     Arise and flee! shake off the vile restraint
     Of ages; but, like Ballymena's saint,
     The oppressor spare,
     Heap only on his head the coals of prayer.

     Go forth, like him! like him return again,
     To bless the land whereon in bitter pain
     Ye toiled at first,
     And heal with freedom what your slavery cursed.

     1863.