Freedom

A Poem by Andre Norton

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This is Freedom--
America bought it--for a price--
From scalping knives and red war hatchets
In ragged clearings about burned cabins.

This is Freedom--
America bought it--for a price--
With long rifle and starvation
At Brandywine and Saratoga,
Valley Forge and Yorktown.

This is Freedom--
America bought it--for a price--
With frigates' broadsides
To proclaim seas free to all nations.

This is Freedom--
America bought it--for a price--
With bayonets at Chateau Thierry and
Belleau Wood
And in the shattered forests of the Argonne.

This is Freedom--
America buys it--at a price--
In the air and distant seas
And on the beaches of ravaged lands,
With our hands and bodies and those minds
Trained to act and work
That this Freedom shall not perish from this earth!

Andre Norton ~ 1943

 

 

Original from Andre's scrapbook

September 1943 in The Cleveland Press

Then reprinted 66 years later on July 4th, 2009

 

 

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