Passover

The First Declaration of Independence

THE SULLEN ice has crept from sunny fields,

The conflict of the elements is passed!

Again the spring its wealth of verdure yields,

The probing sun has conquered frost at last!

’Tis the Passover of reviving earth,

The longed for resurrection of its charms,

Each peeping bud a type of Freedom’s birth,—

A conquest each o’er winter’s dread alarms.

All, all the sunny joys till now concealed,

Are prototypes of Liberty’s blest morn

When Israel’s rescue first that truth revealed,—

“To free and equal rights all men are born!”

Infallible as Nature in her round

Emancipates herself from winter’s reign,

So shall the clarion note of Freedom sound

And all the world the burden proud sustain.

Oh mankind hear!—and to all those proclaim

Who languish for the light of Freedom’s sun,—

Let all the Nations join the glad acclaim,—

“Our God is One—Humanity is One!”