The+Free+Flag

January 1, 1863

The Free Flag
By George Henry Boker

O holy ensign! Symbol fair And unpolluted, save by those Whose crimes have made themselves thy foes, Kiss with true love the taintless air! Lay all thy starry clusters bare Beneath the heavenly stars; secure That, as their own, thy light is pure!

No more at thee the world shall sneer; No more beneath thy shade shall flash The terrors of the tyrant’s lash; Nor a whole race be bowed with fear, As widens out thy grand career; Nor shalt thou shield from righteous scorn The guilt thy virtue has forsworn!

Where’er thy marshalled lines advance The shattered chain shall fall behind; And in sad eyes, half blank, half blind, The light of liberty shall dance; And the imbruted countenance Shall warm with knowledge in the rays That break on thy regenerate days!

Now thou hast purpose, strong and high, Who doubts that right’s assured success, If not from man, from God, shall bless Thy suffering fidelity With more than mortal victory,-- With peace whose heart no more shall quake Whene’er a loosened chain may shake?

Fly on, fly on! All hail to thee, Flag whose fair folds thy children’s blood Has washed as in a running flood! And may thy war-cry’s burden be, Alike to all, “Be free, be free!” Perish the wretch who’d see thee wave Again above the shrinking slave!