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Poetry: Sonnet: The Free Mind

Poetry: Sonnet: The Free Mind image
Parent Issue
Day
14
Month
November
Year
1842
Copyright
Public Domain
Additional Text

Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison wrote this sonnet on the walls of his cell in Baltimore Jail during his imprisonment in 1830 for his refusal to pay a fine in a libel suit brought against him by a slave trader.

Poem
OCR Text

Hich walls and the body moy conf.ne. And ron grates obatruct the prisoner's gaze, And ma3sive gitos mny bafílc his design, And vigilaiu keepers wntch his devious ways: Yet scorne the immortnl mind this base control! No chains can bind il, and no ccll enclose: Swifter than light, it flies irom pole to pole, And in a flash trom earth to heaven it gocs! It loaps from inount to mount; Irom vale to vale It vanders,plucking honeyed fruits and flowers, It visite home, to liear the fire-sidc tale, Or, in sweei.converse, pais the joyous hours. 'Tis up before the sun, roanüng afar, And, in its watche3, wearies every slar!