Independence Bell

Anonymous

There was tumult in the city,
  In the quaint old Quaker town,
And the streets were rife with people
  Pacing restless up and down;
People gathering at the corners,
  Where they whispered each to each,
And the sweat stood on their temples
  With the earnestness of speech.

As the bleak Atlantic currents
  Lash the wild Newfoundland shore,
So they beat against the State House
  So they surged against the door;
And the mingling of their voices
  Made the harmony profound,
Till the quiet street of Chestnut
  Was all turbulent with sound.

"Will they do it?"  "Dare they do it?"
  "Who is speaking?"  "Whate's the news?"
"What of Adams?"  "What of Sherman?"
  "Oh, God grant they won't refuse!"
"Make some way there!"  "Let me nearer!"
  "I am stifling!"  "Stifle then!
When a nation's life's at hazard
  We've no time to think of men!"

So they surged against the State House,
  While all solemnly inside
Sat the "Continental Congress,"
  Truth and reason for their guide:
O'er a simple scroll debating,
  Which, though simple it might be
Yet should shake the cliffs of England
  With the thunders of the free.

Far aloft in that high steeple
  Sat the bellman, old and gray;
He was weary of the tyrant
  And his iron-sceptred sway:
So he sat with one hand ready
  On the clapper of the bell,
When his eye could catch the signal,
  The expected news to tell.

See! See! The dense crowd quivers
  Through all its lengthy line,
As the boy beside the portal
  Hastens forth to give the sign!
With his little hands uplifted,
  Breezes dallying with his hair --
Hark! with deep, clear intonation,
  Breaks his young voice on the air.

Hushed the people's swelling murmur,
  Whilst the boy cries joyously:
"Ring!" he shouts. "Ring, grandpapa!
  Ring! oh, ring for Liberty!"
Quickly, at the given signal,
  The old bellman lifts his hand;
Forth he sends the good news, making
  Iron music through the land.

How they shouted! What rejoicing!
  How the old Bell shook the air,
Till the clang of freedom ruffled
  The calmly gliding Delaware!
How the bonfires and the torches
  Lighted up the night's repose,
And from flames, like fabled Phoenix,
  Our glorious liberty arose!

That old State House bell is silent,
  Hushed is now its clamorous tongue:
But the spirit it awakened
  Still is living - ever young:
And when we greet the smiling sunlight
  On the Fourth of each July,
We will ne'er forget the bellman
  Who, betwixt the earth and sky,
Rang out loudly, "Independence!"
  Which, please God, shall never die!

Tags: 4th of July, America, Freedom, Independence Day, liberty, Liberty Bell, poem, poetry, USA