xml/lby.00043.xml Icons of Liberty: "The Liberty Bell"

R.R. Madden, "The Liberty Bell," Liberty Bell (1847)

Transcribed from pages 1-4 of the Liberty Bell, for the year 1847.

The bell! the bell! the glorious bell
Whose merry chimes delight the ear!
An ever cheering tale they tell,
That all true men exult to hear.

The glorious bell of Liberty!
Another peal comes booming o'er
The wide Atlantic, charged with glee
And tidings glad, to each heart's core.

The soul-awakening sounds of old!
They rouse up all life's hopes anew:
I know them well;—I heard them tolled,
In lands where Freedom's friends are few.

I gave that bell a pull of yore,
And though forsooth a feeble one,
And I may never ring it more,
My fingers stir as if each tone

To instant action called again,
In Freedom's cause—and thoughts arise
Of noble deeds, and dauntless men,
That swell the heart and fill the eyes.

The peal of THIRTY-FOUR! the peal
That made the tropics dance for joy!
Again I seem to hear and feel,
Bliss without bounds, without alloy.

The tocsin now that roused the land
Of Tell, in every fibre thrills,
And bravery seems of heart and hand
An instinct there that Freedom wills.

The tyrant's knell, in every clime
Where bondage lays its curse on earth,
The bell of death—is tolled, for crime.
Against the land that gave him birth.

Oh for a glorious peal at last
Of the true bell of Liberty!
To rend the air, and strike aghast
The moster might of Slavery.

Oh! for a swing of that great tongue,
To shake the proud oppressor's throne,
Where'er it's set: with one ding-dong
To bring the potent despot down.

Oh! for a burst of that deep bell
Of Mafra's tower, to fright away
The people's foes, and ring the knell
Of giant Mammon's godless sway:

To smile with fear the fiends who trade
In human flesh and blood,—the knaves
Who give the gold to make the raid,
And rail at those who vend the slaves;

To save the land that holds the graves
Of Franklin, Washington, and Penn,
From laws that make her millions slaves,—
And, worse than brutes, of Christian men.

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