James and Mary Ford, eds. Every Day in the Year. 1902.
January 1The Proclamation
By John Greenleaf Whittier (18071892)
S
Of Ballymena, wakened with these words:
“Arise and flee
Out from the land of bondage, and be free!”
The angels singing of his sins forgiven,
And, wondering, sees,
His prison opening to their golden keys.
Shook from his locks the ashes of the grave,
And outward trod
Into the glorious liberty of God.
And, passing where the sleeping Milcho lay,
Though back and limb
Smarted with wrong, he prayed, “God pardon him!”
To light on Uilline’s hills a holy flame;
And, dying, gave
The land a saint that lost him as a slave.
Waiting for God, your hour at last has come,
And freedom’s song
Breaks the long silence of your night of wrong!
Of ages; but, like Ballymena’s saint,
The oppressor spare,
Heap only on his head the coals of prayer.
To bless the land whereon in bitter pain
Ye toiled at first,
And heal with freedom what your slavery cursed.