Liberty Poem for Asia, Africa, Europe, America, Australia, Cuba, and The Archipelagoes of the Sea

COURAGE! my brother or my sister!

Keep on! Liberty is to be subserved, what-everwhatever occurs;

That is nothing, that is quelled by one or two fail-uresfailures, or any number of failures,

Or by the indifference or ingratitude of the

      people,

Or the show of the tushes of power—soldiers,

      cannon, penal statutes.

What we believe in waits latent forever through

      Asia, Africa, Europe, America, Australia,

      Cuba, and all the islands and archipelagoes

      of the sea;

What we believe in invites no one, promises

      nothing, sits in calmness and light, is positive and composed, knows no discouragement,

Waits patiently its time—a year—a century —

      a hundred centuries.

The battle rages with many a loud alarm and

      frequent advance and retreat,

The infidel triumphs—or supposes he triumphs,

The prison, scaffold, garrote, hand-cuffs, iron neck-lacenecklace and anklet, lead-balls, do their work,

The named and unnamed heroes pass to other

      spheres,

The great speakers and writers are exiled—they lie sick in distant lands,

The cause is asleep—the strong throats are

      choked with their own blood,

The young men drop their eye-lashes toward the ground when they meet,

But for all this, liberty has not gone out of the place, nor the infidel entered into pos-sessionpossession.

When liberty goes out of a place, it is not the first to go, nor the second or third to go,

It waits for all the rest to go—it is the last.

When there are no more memories of the lovers

      of the whole of the nations of the world,

The lovers' names scouted in the public gatherings by the lips of the orators,

Boys not christened after them, but christened after traitors and murderers instead,

Laws for slaves sweet to the taste of people — the slave-hunt acknowledged,

You or I walking abroad upon the earth, elated at the sight of slaves, no matter who they are,

And when all life and all the souls of men and women are discharged from any part of the earth,

Then shall the instinct of liberty be discharged from that part of the earth,

Then shall the infidel and the tyrant come into possession.