Classic Poem

Seek us with gifts, but the gifts shall not charm us,
Woo us with smiles, and the smiles shall be vain;
Crush in your madness, and yet it won't harm us,
How can the cause that is deathless be slain?


Gather your hirelings and traitors around you,
Strengthen your ranks with liars and slaves,
The spirit of freedom shall rise to confound you,
The armies of progress shall trample your graves.


Bribe you our weaklings, it shall not avail you;
Load us with chains, yet our souls shall be free;
Kill, yet the weapons of murder shall foil you,
And blood shall make perfect the harvest to be.


You have mocked at our cries in the night of our sorrow,
You laughed at our dreams, but our dreams shall come true,
In our eyes is the light of a shining To-morrow,
And we leave, in our triumph, the darkness and you.