In Divers Tones

by Charles G.D. Roberts

Edited by Tracy Ware

 

LIBERTY

(From the French of Louis Honore Fréchette.)

 
A child, I set the thirsting of my mouth
   To the gold chalices of loves that craze.
Surely, alas, I have found therein but drouth,
   Surely has sorrow darkened o’er my days.
While worldlings chase each other madly round
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   Their giddy track of frivolous gayety,
Dreamer, my dream earth’s utmost longings bound:
   One love alone is mine, my love is Liberty.

I have sung them all;—youth’s lightsomeness that fleets,
   Pure friendship, my most fondly cherished dreams,
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Wild blossoms and the winds that steal their sweets,
   Wood odors, and the star that whitely gleams.
But our hearts change; the spirit dulls its edge
   In the chill contact with reality;
These vanished like the foam-bells on the sedge:
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   I sing one burden now, my song is Liberty.

I drench my spirit in ecstacy, consoled,
   And my gaze trembles toward the azure arc,
When in the wide world-records I behold
   Flame like a meteor God’s finger thro’ the dark[.]
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But if, at times, bowed over the abyss
   Wherein man crawls towards immortality,—
Beholding here how sore his suffering is,
   I make my prayer with tears, it is for Liberty.