President Lincoln’s Proclamation of Emancipation, January 1, 1863

By Frances E. W. Harper

It shall flash through coming ages,
It shall light the distant years;
And eyes now dim with sorrow
Shall be brighter through their tears.

It shall flush the mountain ranges,
And the valleys shall grow bright;
It shall bathe the hills in radiance,
And crown their brows with light.

It shall flood with golden splendor
All the huts of Caroline;
And the sun-kissed brow of labor
With lustre new shall shine.

It shall gild the gloomy prison,
Darkened by the nation’s crime,
Where the dumb and patient millions
Wait the better-coming time.

By the light that gilds their prison
They shall see its mouldering key;
And the bolts and bars shall vibrate
With the triumphs of the free.

Though the morning seemed to linger
O’er the hill-tops far away,
Now the shadows bear the promise
Of the quickly coming day.

Soon the mists and murky shadows
Shall be fringed with crimson light,
And the glorious dawn of freedom
Break refulgent on the sight.