Freedom of the Mind

William Lloyd Garrison (1805–1879)

Written While in Prison for Denouncing the Domestic Slave-Trade

HIGH walls and huge the body may confine,

And iron gates obstruct the prisoner’s gaze,

And massive bolts may baffle his design,

And vigilant keepers watch his devious ways;

But scorns the immortal mind such base control:

No chains can bind it and no cell enclose.

Swifter than light it flies from pole to pole,

And in a flash from earth to heaven it goes.

It leaps from mount to mount; from vale to vale

It wanders, plucking honeyed fruits and flowers;

It visits home to hear the fireside tale

And in sweet converse pass the joyous hours;

’T is up before the sun, roaming afar,

And in its watches wearies every star.