I⁠ WAS born as free as the silvery light
⁠That laughs in a Southern fountain;
Free as the sea-fed bird that nests
⁠On a Scandinavian mountain,
Free as the wind that mocks at the sway
⁠And pinioning clasp of another,
Yet in the slave they scourged to-day
⁠I saw and knew—my brother!

Vested in purple I sat apart,
⁠But the cord that smote him bruised me;
I closed my ears, but the sob that broke
⁠From his savage breast accused me;
No phrase of reasoning judgement just
⁠The plaint of my soul could smother,
A creature vile, abased to the dust,
⁠I knew him still—my brother.

And the autumn day that had smiled so fair
⁠Seemed suddenly overclouded;
A gloom, more dreadful than Nature owns,
⁠My human mind enshrouded;
​I thought of the power benign that made
⁠And bound men one to the other,
And I felt in my brother's fear afraid,
⁠And ashamed in the shame of my brother.