TO THE PRISONERS OF LIBERTY
JOHN BURNS AND R. B. CUNNINGHAM GRAHAM, WHO SUFFERED FOR A BRAVE ATTEMPT TO MAINTAIN THE RIGHT OF FREE SPEECH AND PUBLIC MEETING IN TRAFALGAR SQUARE.
WHAT robe of honour doth the prison hide,
What glory lines its stony cell and bare,
That, erst its tenants, forth in triumph fare?
Bondsmen for Freedom, and the right denied
By fraud and force, in legal mask that bide,
Alike on Irish ground, or London’s square,
With violent hands on those, henceforth to bear
The crest of battle on the people’s side.
What! must ye learn the lesson still so late
That they who suffer for the common good
Stone walls confine not, and no chain doth hold,
Blind Tyranny? Whom these, like men, withstood:
Whose tenfold force flings back the iron gate,
Whose names upon the reddening morn are scrolled.
February 22, 1888.