OLD IRONSIDES1 OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES This splendid lyric celebrates the American frigate Constitution. Launched in 1797, the famous sea-fighter served against the Mediterranean pirates, and then against England in the war of 1812. One of her daring exploits during the latter struggle was the capture of the English frigate Guerrière. In 1830 Holmes read a newspaper story to the effect that the Navy Department had condemned the old Constitution to be destroyed because unseaworthy. Though still a student and barely twenty-one, Holmes wrote these lines that were to stir the feeling of the entire nation. The poem was spread broadcast, and caused such popular indignation that the order of destruction was recalled. The old Constitution was almost completely rebuilt in 1834, and since 1897 she has been moored in the Charlestown (Mass.) Navy Yard, perhaps the most highly prized of all our inheritances from the past. AY, TEAR her tattered ensign down! Beneath it rung the battle shout, The meteor of the ocean air Shall sweep the clouds no more. Her deck, once red with heroes' blood, 1 From The Complete Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes. Used by permission of, and by special arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company. When winds were hurrying o'er the flood, No more shall feel the victor's tread, Oh, better that her shattered hulk Set every threadbare sail, And give her to the god of storms, LIBERTY FOR ALL WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879) founded the American Anti-Slavery Society, and served as its president from 1843 to 1865. He was for years the leading abolitionist in the country. Twice he was imprisoned for the violent utterances with which he denounced slaveholders. established the renowned anti-slavery paper, the Liberator, and wrote many poems in which he demanded the unconditional emancipation of all slaves. THEY tell me, Liberty! that in thy name I may not plead for all the human race; He Some to a heritage of woe and shame, And some to power supreme, and glorious fame: All people, and for all fair freedom claim! Woe, then, to those who dare to desecrate And, by a mighty hand, the oppressed He yet shall save! STANZAS ON FREEDOM 1 JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL Lowell made great personal sacrifices in espousing the cause of abolition as early as 1843, when the issue was a very unpopular one. These stanzas, written for an antislavery celebration held on the anniversary of West Indian emancipation, aroused much hard feeling, and when his second book of verse was to be published, Lowell was asked if he did not wish the poem suppressed. His answer was, "Let all others be suppressed if you willthat I will never suppress." MEN! whose boast it is that ye 1 From The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell. Used by permission of, and by special arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company. Are ye truly free and brave? Women! who shall one day bear Deeds to make the roused blood rush For your sisters now in chains- Mothers of the brave and free? Is true Freedom but to break They are slaves who fear to speak For the fallen and the weak; They are slaves who will not choose Hatred, scoffing, and abuse, Rather than in silence shrink From the truth they needs must think; In the right with two or three. THE PRESENT CRISIS1 JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL This poem was written in 1844, when the annexation of Texas was a topic of general discussion. WHEN a deed is done for Freedom, through the broad earth's aching breast Runs a thrill of joy prophetic, trembling on from east to west, And the slave, where'er he cowers, feels the soul within him climb To the awful verge of manhood, as the energy sublime Of a century bursts full-blossomed on the thorny stem of Time. Through the walls of hut and palace shoots the instantaneous throe, When the travail of the Ages wrings earth's systems to and fro; 1 From The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell. Used by permission of, and by special arrangement with, Houghton Mifflin Company. |