  Forgotten? aye, cruelly forgotten! Passed by with looks of disdain By the world, whose thin friendship is rotten, That honors but riches and gain. The poor are looked down upon coldly, Though grand men in poverty have died; And I assert, with just indignation, They were slain by the world’s cold pride. They struggled alone in the valley To win up the far heights of fame; And they pleaded but kind recognition, But you thrust them down coldly again. And you sneered at the lines they had written— Lines that shall live till time is no more— Fiery songs that light like a beacon Along many a soul’s dark shore. And their thoughts were deep and uplifted; They soared like eagles on high, Or delved in the depths of the ocean Of knowledge that borders the sky. They stood on the loftiest mountains, And gazed on the circling spheres Of starry realms, the mystery of space, In ecstasy, rapture, and fears. They read from the grand book of nature, And traced there the finger of God, In starry ways of the fathomless deeps That lead to man’s future abode. Heard its billows sing grand and free, As they rose in the storm or sank to repose In murmuring tranquillity. And over the landscape that rolls away Saw mountain, and river, and stream; The undulations of emerald plains, In the lights and shadows that dream. And they heard the voice of murmuring winds, And the bird songs free and wild, Till their souls were filled with subtle sweets, As nature upon them smiled. Great souls were theirs, and all things daring To uplift their weak fellowman, Bringing light and freedom to the nations By the searchlights of Justice to scan The wrong and oppression by tyrants wrought, The weak and the helpless enslaved; Counting it gain if but freedom’s cause Was uplifted and fallen man saved. |
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