Classic Poem

Pharaoh, Pharaoh, let my people go!

My fettered children toil with aching limbs
And wearied fingers, brain and spirit bound.
Their puny forms are bent; the shadow dims
Their straining eyes; their ears are choked with sound
And thick with reek is every breath they draw.
I gave them light to see and song to hear;
I gave them Truth for guide and Love for law;
And thou hast given darkness, blight and fear.

Pharaoh, Pharaoh, let my people go!

In chains, unseen but strong, my children slave,
Too dull for hopes or dreams, too dumb for prayers;
Thou, thou hast robbed them of the youth I gave,
The world I made, the joy that should be theirs;
These lives are coined to swell thy glittering store;
Then darest thou plead, " Nay, Lord, I did not know! " —
Still heaping up their burdens more and more?
The sand is running. Let my people go.

Pharaoh, Pharaoh, let my people go!

Thy heart is hard. Be warned: The Plagues shall come.
This wrong thou dost shall breed yet fouler wrong.
Those lips shall speak in flame that now are dumb;
Those feeble hands, through wrath and hatred strong,
Shall rend where they have wrought. Yea, once again
Disease, Rebellion, Crime shall overthrow
The selfishness that bred them. Sons of men,
For dread of vengeance, let my people go!