| |
| STAR of the North! though night winds drift | |
| The fleecy drapery of the sky | |
| Between thy lamp and me, I lift, | |
| Yea, lift with hope, my sleepless eye | |
| To the blue heights wherein thou dwellest, | 5 |
| And of a land of freedom tellest. | |
| |
| Star of the North! while blazing day | |
| Pours round me its full tide of light, | |
| And hides thy pale but faithful ray, | |
| I, too, lie hid, and long for night: | 10 |
| For night;—I dare not walk at noon, | |
| Nor dare I trust the faithless moon,— | |
| |
| Nor faithless man, whose burning lust | |
| For gold hath riveted my chain; | |
| Nor other leader can I trust, | 15 |
| But thee, of even the starry train; | |
| For, all the host around thee burning, | |
| Like faithless man, keep turning, turning. | |
| |
| I may not follow where they go: | |
| Star of the North, I look to thee | 20 |
| While on I press; for well I know | |
| Thy light and truth shall set me free;— | |
| Thy light, that no poor slave deceiveth; | |
| Thy truth, that all my soul believeth. | |
| |
| They of the East beheld the star | 25 |
| That over Bethlehem’s manager glowed; | |
| With joy they hailed it from afar, | |
| And followed where it marked the road, | |
| Till, where its rays directly fell, | |
| They found the Hope of Israel. | 30 |
| |
| Wise were the men who followed thus | |
| The star that sets man free from sin! | |
| Star of the North! thou art to us,— | |
| Who ’re slaves because we wear a skin | |
| Dark as is night’s protecting wing,— | 35 |
| Thou art to us a holy thing. | |
| |
| And we are wise to follow thee! | |
| I trust thy steady light alone: | |
| Star of the North! thou seem’st to me | |
| To burn before the Almighty’s throne, | 40 |
| To guide me, through these forests dim | |
| And vast, to liberty and HIM. | |
| |
| Thy beam is on the glassy breast | |
| Of the still spring, upon whose brink | |
| I lay my weary limbs to rest, | 45 |
| And bow my parching lips to drink. | |
| Guide of the friendless negro’s way, | |
| I bless thee for this quiet ray! | |
| |
| In the dark top of southern pines | |
| I nestled, when the driver’s horn | 50 |
| Called to the field, in lengthening lines, | |
| My fellows at the break of morn. | |
| And there I lay, till thy sweet face | |
| Looked in upon “my hiding-place.” | |
| |
| The tangled cane-brake,—where I crept | 55 |
| For shelter from the heat of noon, | |
| And where, while others toiled, I slept | |
| Till wakened by the rising moon,— | |
| As its stalks felt the night wind free, | |
| Gave me to catch a glimpse of thee. | 60 |
| |
| Star of the North! in bright array | |
| The constellations round thee sweep, | |
| Each holding on its nightly way, | |
| Rising, or sinking in the deep, | |
| And, as it hangs in mid-heaven flaming, | 65 |
| The homage of some nation claiming. | |
| |
| This nation to the Eagle cowers; | |
| Fit ensign! she ’s a bird of spoil; | |
| Like worships like! for each devours | |
| The earnings of another’s toil. | 70 |
| I ’ve felt her talons and her beak, | |
| And now the gentler Lion seek. | |
| |
| The Lion at the Virgin’s feet | |
| Crouches, and lays his mighty paw | |
| Into her lap!—an emblem meet | 75 |
| Of England’s Queen and English law:— | |
| Queen, that hath made her Islands free! | |
| Law, that holds out its shield to me! | |
| |
| Star of the North! upon that shield | |
| Thou shinest!—O, forever shine! | 80 |
| The negro from the cotton-field | |
| Shall then beneath its orb recline, | |
| And feed the Lion couched before it, | |
| Nor heed the Eagle screaming o’er it! | |
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