As the bleak Atlantic Currents

Lash the wild Newfoundland shore,

So they beat against the State house,

So they surged against the door;

And the mingling of their voices

Made the harmony profound,

Till the quiet street of Chestnut

Was all turbulent with sound.

“Will they do it?” “Dare they do it?”

“Who is speaking?” “What’s the news?”

“What of Adams?” “What of Sherman?”

“Oh, God grant they won’t refuse!”

“Make some way there!” “Let me nearer!”

“I am stifling!” “Stifle then!

When a nation’s life’s at hazard,

We’ve no time to think of men!”

So they surged against the State house,

While all solemnly inside,

Sat the Continental Congress,

Truth and reason for their guide,

O’er a simple scroll debating,

Which, though simple it might be,

Yet should shake the cliffs of England

With the thunders of the free.

Far aloft in that high steeple

Sat the bellman, old and gray,

He was weary of the tyrant

And his iron-sceptered sway;

So he sat with one hand ready

On the clapper of the bell,

When his eyes could catch the signal,

The long-expected news to tell.

See! See! The dense crowd quivers

Through all its lengthy line,

As the boy beside the portal

Hastens forth to give the sign!

With his little hands uplifted,

Breezes dallying with his hair,

Hark! with deep, clear intonation,

Breaks his young voice on the air.

Hushed the people’s swelling murmur,

Whilst the boy cries joyously;

“Ring!” he shouts, “Ring! Grandpapa,

Ring! Oh, ring for Liberty!”

Quickly, at the given signal

The old bellman lifts his hand,

Forth he sends the good news, making

Iron music through the land.

How they shouted! What rejoicing!

How the old bell shook the air,

Till the clang of freedom ruffled,

The calmly gliding Delaware!

How the bonfires and the torches

Lighted up the night’s repose,

And from the flames, like fabled Phoenix,

Our glorious liberty arose!

That old State House bell is silent,

Hushed is now its clamorous tongue;

But the spirit it awakened

Still is living – ever young;

And when we greet the smiling sunlight

On the fourth of each July,

We will ne’er forget the bellman

Who, betwixt the earth and sky,

Rang out, loudly, “Independence”;

Which, please God, never shall die!