O, Liberty! Enthroned in human right,
What outrages are wrought in thy
fair name;
When keen-eyed fury breaks in secret might
Through gulf of yawning chaos into flame.
When harbingers of death—like Phrygia’s flood
Upon the shore where Niobe was
changed—
Beat on the rock where thou has’t oft withstood
The sable-mantled ghouls against
thee ranged.
When anarchy’s malign and poisoned sting,
Like Erynnis’ destructive venom
spread,
More feared than war or pestilence, will ring
A nation’s lamentation for its
dead.
The wasted freedom curdles in they veins,
Through dastard stroke of one
who claimed thy pale,
And all thy fruit of time in galling chains
To mark severe the humbler human
scale.
