Lines + 

At the Portals of the Future, + 

Full of madness, guilt and gloom, + 

Stood the hateful form of Slavery, + 

Crying, Give, Oh! give me room⁠— + 

Room to smite the earth with cursing, + 

Room to scatter, rend and slay, + 

From the trembling mother’s bosom + 

Room to tear her child away; + 

Room to trample on the manhood + 

Of the country far and wide; + 

Room to spread o’er every Eden + 

Slavery’s scorching lava-tide. + 

Pale and trembling stood the Future, + 

Quailing ’neath his frown of hate, + 

As he grasped with bloody clutches + 

The great keys of Doom and Fate. + 

In his hand he held a banner + 

All festooned with blood and tears: + 

’Twas a fearful ensign, woven + 

With the grief and wrong of years. + 

On his brow he wore a helmet + 

Decked with strange and cruel art; + 

Every jewel was a life-drop + 

Wrung from some poor broken heart. + 

Though her cheek was pale and anxious, + 

Yet, with look and brow sublime, + 

By the pale and trembling Future + 

Stood the Crisis of our time. + 

And from many a throbbing bosom + 

Came the words in fear and gloom, + 

Tell us, Oh! thou coming Crisis, + 

What shall be our country’s doom? + 

Shall the wings of dark destruction + 

Brood and hover o’er our land, + 

Till we trace the steps of ruin + 

By their blight, from strand to strand? + 

With a look and voice prophetic + 

Spake the solemn Crisis then: + 

I have only mapped the future + 

For the erring sons of men. + 

If ye strive for Truth and Justice, + 

If ye battle for the Right, + 

Ye shall lay your hands all strengthened + 

On God’s robe of love and light; + 

But if ye trample on His children, + 

To his ear will float each groan, + 

Jar the cords that bind them to Him, + 

And they’ll vibrate at his throne. + 

And the land that forges fetters, + 

Binds the weak and poor in chains, + 

Must in blood or tears of sorrow + 

Wash away her guilty stains. + 