Martha Hempstead, "Liberty Bells," Liberty Bell (1851)
Transcribed from pages 1-3 of the Liberty Bell, for the year 1851.
- "Liberty Bells!" where ring they not,
- Save where tyrant fingers
- Have ruthlessly unhung
- The music breathing tongue?
- And even then, a hovering cadence lingers
- Around such spot,—
- So that the earnest soul's attentive ear
- Faint murmurings of a tone may sometimes hear.
- Away on the mountain's sunny side,
- Away in the shadowy dells,
- Go listen! not a sound
- Breaks on the air around,
- Unmingled with the voice of those sweet bells,
- From morn to eventide;
- Out from the blossom cup, from shrub and tree,
- Peel forth the chimes, so joyously and free.
- Steepled far from human hands
- On the rocky height,
- And in grottoes low,
- Where no step may go,
- And the spar and wreathing gems are bright
- As fairy wands—
- There ring they on, for hands that weary never,
- Those bright, but unseen strings, are holding ever.
- Out upon the ocean's wings,
- Plumed with silvery spray,
- As they rise and fall;
- Soft, and musical,
- Freedom's bells are ringing night and day,
- Like tireless things;
- And the great bosom of the chainless tide
- Heaves up to greet those echoing notes with pride.
- But within the human soul,
- That hath listened well,
- Nature's every tone,
- Blended into one,
- Floweth serenely on, the uprising swell
- Of that great whole—
- That perfect choir, whose music would become
- Discordant all, if Freedom's Bells were dumb.
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