| I am come of the seed of the people, the people that sorrow;
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| Who have no treasure but hope
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| No riches laid up but a memory of an ancient glory
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| My mother bore me in bondage, in bondage my mother was born
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| I am of the blood of serfs;
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| The children with whom I have played, the men and women with whom I have eaten
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| Have had masters over them, have been under the lash of masters
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| And though gentle, have served churls
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| The hands that have touched mine
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| The dear hands whose touch Is familiar to me
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| Have worn shameful manacles, have been bitten at the wrist by manacles
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| Have grown hard with the manacles and the task-work of strangers
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| I am flesh of the flesh of these lowly, I am bone of their bone I that have
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| never submitted;
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| I that have a soul greater than the souls of my people’s masters
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| I that have vision and prophecy, and the gift of fiery speech
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| I that have spoken with God on the top of his holy hill
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| And because I am of the people, I understand the people
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| I am sorrowful with their sorrow, I am hungry with their desire;
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| My heart is heavy with the grief of mothers
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| My eyes have been wet with the tears of children
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| I have yearned with old wistful men
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| And laughed and cursed with young men;
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| Their shame is my shame, and I have reddened for it
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| Reddened for that they have served, they who should be free
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| Reddened for that they have gone in want, while others have been full
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| Reddened for that they have walked in fear of lawyers and their jailors
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| With their Writs of Summons and their handcuffs
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| Men mean and cruel
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| I could have borne stripes on my body
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| Rather than this shame of my people
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| And now I speak, being full of vision:
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| I speak to my people, and I speak in my people’s name to
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| The masters of my people:
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| I say to my people that they are holy
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| That they are august despite their chains
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| That they are greater than those that hold them
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| And stronger and purer
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| That they have but need of courage, and to call on the name of their God
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| God the unforgetting, the dear God who loves the people
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| For whom he died naked, suffering shame
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| And I say to my people’s masters: Beware
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| Beware of the thing that is coming, beware of the risen people
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| Who shall take what ye would not give
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| Did ye think to conquer the people, or that law is stronger than life
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| And than men’s desire to be free?
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| We will try it out with you ye that have harried and held
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| Ye that have bullied and bribed
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| Tyrants… hypocrites… liars! |