To those who spake in Freedom's cause!
Those men of old,
Who formed and set her deathless laws
In Godlike mould!
Who saw the truth, and spake it out
Till thousand throats took up the shout,
And bore it down the stream of time,
O'er every sea, through every clime,
In cadence deep !
To those who bled in Freedom's van,
In days gone by!
Who lifted up poor trampled man
From Slavery.
And bade him gase beyond the earth ;
Who hewed the way for Freedom's birth,
And left their names on history's page,
The watchword of an after age
In Freedom's fight !
To those who died. The martyr host
Who gave their breath--
Who made the right their trust and boast,
E'en to the death :
Enthusiast minds of impulse strong,
Crushed by Oppression's dastard throng :
Oh, may their deeds nerve heart and hand,
Their souls pervade each struggling band,
Their faith uphold!
To those who sang the ragged rhyme
In chorus wild,
Or tuned the sweet melodious chime
In hymnings mild?
The prophet-bards who loved their kind,
And left their legacies of mind,
For man of every hue and name,
To feed the intellectual flame,
And cheer the way.
To those who live amongst us now!
Those patriot men
Who dare lift up the earnest brow
And strive again?
Oh may we love and bear them up,
And snatch the hemlock from their cup;
Whilst side by side in Freedom's cause,
We struggle hard for equal laws
With tongue and pen!
First published in The Argus, 12 May 1851
