Above emporer's court and king's dark hall
She defies their rule with echoing call
Look close - the Lady weeps.
To every tribe and tongue and land
She bids them come, and with her stand
And in her cause to lend their hand
They answer - and she weeps.
From every land, from ice and heat
The people on her glad shores meet
The huddle masses gasp at her feet
And the Lady weeps.
Her sons who love her more than life
More then children, more than wife
Gather arms and join the strife -
And the Lady weeps.
Her soldiers haste to heed her call
Assembling in the golden hall
As one by one they crimson fall
And the Lady weeps.
Her sons bend low beneath the lash -
Hot, dark-skinned, beneath the lash
Lowly, weary, 'neath the lash
And the Lady weeps.
Her son's sons fain disdain her name
And heap dishonor on her fame
They proudly scorn her poor and maimed
And the Lady weeps.
Her Lord and Author they despise
Their sins lay vile before his eyes
They neither care nor realize
For them the Lady weeps.
But day shall come when He who lay
Within the grave yet rose third day
Shall come and scatter night away -
For this the Lady weeps.
Then shall all Him homage pay
Then wrong shall cease and right shall sway
And in that bright and happy day
She shall no longer weep.