Poems (Jackson)/Freedom

For works with similar titles, see Freedom.

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FREEDOM.
WHAT freeman knoweth freedom? Never heWhose father's fathers through long lives have reignedO'er kingdoms which mere heritage attained.Though from his youth to age he roam as free ​As winds, he dreams not freedom's ecstasy.But he whose birth was in a nation chainedFor centuries; where every breath was drainedFrom breasts of slaves which knew not there could beSuch thing as freedom,—he beholds the lightBurst, dazzling; though the glory blind his sightHe knows the joy. Fools laugh because he reelsAnd wields confusedly his infant will;The wise man watching with a heart that feelsSays: "Cure for freedom's harms is freedom still."

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