Page:Poems, Household Edition, Emerson, 1904.djvu/240

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204
BOSTON HYMN

Pay ransom to the owner
And fill the bag to the brim.
Who is the owner? The slave is owner,
And ever was. Pay him.


O North! give him beauty for rags,
And honor, O South! for his shame;
Nevada! coin thy golden crags
With Freedom's image and name.


Up! and the dusky race
That sat in darkness long,—
Be swift their feet as antelopes,
And as behemoth strong.


Come, East and West and North,
By races, as snow-flakes,
And carry my purpose forth,
Which neither halts nor shakes.


My will fulfilled shall be,
For, in daylight or in dark,
My thunderbolt has eyes to see
His way home to the mark.