Anti Lyrics No. 1 – from “Some Nova Scotian Poets of Confederation”

by

Tho’ felon hands have forged a chain,
In slavery to bind us;
We yet shall snap the bonds in twain,
And cast the links behind us.

With lying lips and guileful tongue
They laboured to enslave us;
Until those rights from us were wrung,
Which our forefathers gave us.

Our noble country they would grasp,
With tyranny enthralling;
While we in bondage sore must grasp
Beneath a rule so galling.

To traitors we must bow the knee
In humble supplication –
Shall we who lately were so free
Brook this humiliation?

Forbid it heaven, and all true men
Endowed with powers of reason!
No, we must have our own again
In spite of fraud and treason.

Our cry will reach the mother shore
Against the violation
0f all we held so dear of your,
By this Confederation.

For Britain was by lies deceived
When she did pass the measure
That our escutcheon fair defiled
And robbed us of our treasure

Born freemen, freemen we will die,
Part of a glorious nation
Then let each loyal subject cry
‘Confound· Confederation!’

For felon hands may forge a chain
In slavery to bind us;
But we will snap their bonds in twain,
And cast the links behind us.

Fred. (?) Morning Chronicle, December 24, 1867

Muise, D.A. “Some Nova Scotian Poets of Confederation” Dalhousie Review, Volume 50, Number 1, 1970 https://dalspace.library.dal.ca/bitstream/handle/10222/59368/dalrev_vol50_iss1_pp71_82.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

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