Читать книгу A Few More Verses - Coolidge Susan - Страница 22

I WOULD be free! For freedom is all fair,

And her strong smile is like the smile of God.

Her voice rings out like trumpet on the air,

And men rise up and follow; though the road

Be all unknown and hard to understand,

They tread it gladly, holding Freedom’s hand.

I would be free! The little spark of Heaven

Let in my soul when life was breathed in me

Is like a flame, this way and that way driven

By ever wavering winds, which ceaselessly

Kindle and blow till all my soul is hot.

And would consume if liberty were not.

I would be free! But what is freedom, then?

For widely various are the shapes she wears

In different ages and to different men;

And many titles, many forms she bears, —

Riot and revolution, sword and flame,

All called in turn by Freedom’s honored name.

I would be free! Not free to burn and spoil,

To trample down the weak and smite the strong,

To seize the larger share of wine and oil,

And rob the sun my daylight to prolong,

And rob the night of sleep while others wake, —

Feast on their famine, basely free to take.

I would be free! Free in a dearer way,

Free to become all that I may or can;

To be my best and utmost self each day,

Not held or bound by any chain of man,

By dull convention, or by foolish sneer,

Or love’s mistaken clasp of feeble fear.

Free to be kind and true and faithful; free

To do the happy thing that makes life good,

To grow as grows the goodly forest-tree;

By none gainsaid, by none misunderstood,

To taste life’s freshness with a child’s delight,

And find new joy in every day and night.

I would be free! Ah! so may all be free.

Then shall the world grow sweet at core and sound.

And, moved in blest and ordered circuit, see

The bright millennial sun rise fair and round,

Heaven’s day begin, and Christ, whose service is

Freedom all perfect, rule the world as his.