Paean

Keep me in chains! I defy you!
That is a pow’r I deny you!
I will sing! I will rise!
Up! To the lurid skies—
With the smoke of my soul,
With my last breath,
Tar-feathered, I shall cry:
Ethiopia shall not die!
And hand in hand with Death,
Pass on!
I shall not curse you. But singing—
My singing! fatefully ringing
Till startled and dumb
You falter, the sum
Of your crime shall reveal–—
This do I prophesy…
O Heart wrung dry!
Awake!
Startle the world with thy cry:
Ethiopia shall not die!