Poetry Written For The Celebration Of Paine’s Birthday In New York

MAN’S BIRTHRIGHT

When Nature’s works burst from her teeming hand,

With realms distinct for all her creatures plann’d;

The bird in range thro’ heaven’s diffusive light,

And wing its way beyond the glance of sight;

The trackless fish to skim the expansive main,

And there sole monarch of the deep to reign;

The beasts thro’ wastes and forest-wilds to roam,

And make in silent haunts their endless home;

With insect worms, uncheck’d by human skill,

To pierce each labyrinth of her works at will:

She bound them all in one harmonious whole,

And gave to man dominion and control:

The sea to rove, the mountain-path to tread,

His home in climes where’er his wishes led;

To till the globe, and deck its vivid green,

With bright abodes to cheer life’s lonely scene;

Each to partake his fair apportion’d part,

Improve with science, and adorn with art;

O’er ruder spots a softening charm to throw,

And gild the dark with mind’s transcendent glow:

To seize each pleasure, shun each thorn of pain,

And with earth’s bounties life from want sustain;

Free to possess, and uncontroll’d in share,

Lord over all, the world’s unbounded heir.

Contented left in tranquil scenes to dwell,

More bles’d than those Millennium prophets tell;

Stamp’d on his brow with thought’s eternal sway,

An impress mind alone can give to clay;

Link’d with creation’s scheme sublime to stand,

Born to be free, and living to command:

Above the heavens, around earth’s beauties smil’d,

And bless’d proud man as Nature’s favorite child.

Thus in the dawn, the golden age of time,

The world was lovely, and unstain’d with crime,

Till priestly creeds and power usurp’d began

To curse its charms, and blight the hopes of man:

Left want the ddire companion of his doom,

Chains to enslave, and misery to consume;

Chok’d every stream whence Wisdom’s waters roll,

And turn’d the tide of Knowledge from his soul.

Oh! withering doom! oh! cheerless night of mind!

When Freedom left, and Slavery curs’d mankind;

When bow’d in shame, in bondage, and in dread,

Stern man no more his life untrammell’d led.

With ills to bear, and trials to oppose,

Life’s wants to meet, and stern averting woes,

Say, what were man bereft of Reason’s ray,

The light of thought—mind’s intellectual day?

By instinct led thro’ some inferior sphere,

A soulless brute, an idiot wanderer here.

And he who first with soul infernal sought

To chain the limbs, or stay the wings of thought;

Curs’d by his race, damn’d on the tongue of fame,

Too foul for earth, heaven shudd’ring at his name,

Should feel, as onward years eternal flow,

The fabled pangs hell’s frantic inmates know.

As when deep pent in earth’s volcanic breast,

Her struggling fires in unknown caverns rest,

Till forc’d at last in bursting rage they fly,

Convulse the world, and flame along the sky:

So through long ages slept the might of mind,

Unclaim’d the boon, the birthright of our kind;

Till rous’d by wrongs, and cheer’d by Reason’s flame,

Man burst the bonds that doom’d his race to shame;

Stood forth unaw’d in stern majestic pride,

Crush’d lawless pow’r, and turn’d oppression’s tide;

And from the west first call’d the world to view

Fair Freedom’s triumphs, and her blessings too.

Oh, happy hour that told our country’s doom,

And bade her beacon-light the world illume!

When through her skies her gorgeous banner stream’d,

And from the press the rays of Knowledge beam’d;

When wide and far her thrilling name began,

To wake the soul, and cheer the fate of man!

Here is the exact transcribed text from the image for easy copying:

Tho’ some faint glimmerings o’er the world have gon[e]

The herald beams of Freedom’s rising morn;

Tho’ mind hath stamp’d on time’s eventful page,

Some proud achievements, land-marks of our age;

Man still in error half delirious creeps,

Or warped by fear in superstition sleeps;

Made free to choose, he hugs tenacious still,

Some fancied good, till stung by real ill;

His birthright lost, its ransom but begun—

Thrice-glorious hour that shall proclaim it won!

For this did Plato picture to mankind,

Utopia’s pleasures, and the charms of mind;

For this did Brutus stem foul Tarquin’s power,

Revenge Lucretia, and regain Rome’s dower;

With true-eyed aim, Tell fearless strung his bow,

Pierc’d Gezler’s heart, and eas’d his country’s woe;

For this great Alfred, England’s royal sage,

Bestow’d just laws on his barbaric age;

For this brave Bruce spread war’s ensanguin’d tide,

And Wallace spurn’d fair Scotland’s foes aside;

And Tyler, Hampden, Emmet dar’d rebel,

While Sydney freedom’s willing martyr fell;

For this a Bacon, Locke, and Milton

sought Untravers’d paths thro’ boundless realms of thought;

For this Rousseau, a Volney, and Voltaire,

Did kingly hate, and priestly vengeance dare;

For this fair Roland death unshrinking brav’d,

And sigh’d her cares had not her country sav’d;

For this a Franklin’s mild and manly skill,

Made friends of foes, and turn’d a tyrant’s will;

Mount Vernon’s Chief an empire’s burdens bore,

Whom danger shook not, nor could crowns allure;

Virginia’s Sage read Nature’s volume through,

And for man’s rights his country’s charter drew;

A Henry’s bosom burn’d with patriot fire,

Plead for the free, and rous’d their quenchless ire;

And La Fayette with high soul’d valor fraught,

War’s carnage brav’d, and Freedom’s battles fought:

For this did Paine the torch of Reason bear,

Through storms that made more coward hearts despair;

Our sires for this back on a tyrant hurl’d

The chains he forg’d to crush a new born world.

Tho’ some faint glimmerings o’er the world have gone

The herald beams of Freedom’s rising morn;

Tho’ mind hath stamp’d on time’s eventful page,

Some proud achievements, land-marks of our age;

Man still in error half delirious creeps,

Or warped by fear in superstition sleeps;

Made free to choose, he hugs tenacious still,

Some fancied good, till stung by real ill;

His birthright lost, its ransom but begun—

Thrice-glorious hour that shall proclaim it won!

For this did Plato picture to mankind,

Utopia’s pleasures, and the charms of mind;

For this did Brutus stem foul Tarquin’s power,

Revenge Lucretia, and regain Rome’s dower;

With true-eyed aim, Tell fearless strung his bow,

Pierc’d Gezler’s heart, and eas’d his country’s woe;

For this great Alfred, England’s royal sage,

Bestow’d just laws on his barbaric age;

For this brave Bruce spread war’s ensanguin’d tide,

And Wallace spurn’d fair Scotland’s foes aside;

And Tyler, Hampden, Emmet dar’d rebel,

While Sydney freedom’s willing martyr fell;

For this a Bacon, Locke, and Milton sought

Untravers’d paths thro’ boundless realms of thought;

For this Rousseau, a Volney, and Voltaire,

Did kingly hate, and priestly vengeance dare;

For this fair Roland death unshrinking brav’d,

And sigh’d her cares had not her country sav’d;

For this a Franklin’s mild and manly skill,

Made friends of foes, and turn’d a tyrant’s will;

Mount Vernon’s Chief an empire’s burdens bore,

Whom danger shook not, nor could crowns allure;

Virginia’s Sage read Nature’s volume through,

And for man’s rights his country’s charter drew;

A Henry’s bosom burn’d with patriot fire,

Plead for the free, and rous’d their quenchless ire;

And La Fayette with high soul’d valor fraught,

War’s carnage brav’d, and Freedom’s battles fought:

For this did Paine the torch of Reason bear,

Through storms that made more coward hearts despair;

Our sires for this back on a tyrant hurl’d

The chains he forg’d to crush a new born world.

Let Camden’s story and Savannah’s tell,

For what De Kalb and brave Pulaski fell;

Let Quebec’s walls and Bunker’s Hill reply,

For what did Warren and Montgomery die;

And Poland’s wrongs why Kosciusco bled,

Why Warsaw’s sons bestrew’d their homes with dead;

Tell, bleeding Spain! for what Riego died,

Bolivar’s death for what his life had tried;

Why does Bozzaris charm the ear of fame?

What gave an added glow to Byron’s name?

Go, search the earth for consecrated ground—

Where battled man for Freedom, there ’tis found.

For this an Owen’s generous skill design’d

New forms of social comfort for mankind;

For this, inspir’d with virtue’s noble rage,

A Wright pleads Knowledge for her laggard age;

For this did Johnson Reason’s champion stand,

When bigot wolves howl’d maddening thro’ the land.

Pride of mankind! the barrier names of wrong,

To Freedom wed by Fame’s familiar tongue;

Hail’d by the world, untarnish’d with a crime,

Bless’d by the free, and brightening still with time.

Though lost so long, time’s flight shall yet restore

Life’s priceless boon, and curse our race no more;

Repay the past, and myriads yet unborn Hail

Reason’s reign, and Freedom’s cheering morn;

Science and Truth in twin born glory shine,

And peace all hearts in bonds fraternal twine!