REVISED ORIGINAL SONG: Call Me Liberty, v1.1
Matt G. Leger
posting, but the Marine at the End of the Bar spotted the incompleteness of
this song the last time it was posted and Emailed me to say so. I managed to
come up with some more, and he seems to think it's all there now; anyone
agree with him?" He then tacked a sheet of paper with the following on it to
the Wall and tore down the earlier version he had hung there.
*****
CALL ME LIBERTY
Music and lyrics by Matt G. Leger
with chorus lyrics adapted from "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus
She stands in the harbor, our gift from the French,
Where she's stood for so many years,
Proud mark of the gate to the land of the free
Witness to both pain's and joy's tears.
The smoke and the steam and the steerage's stench
Have bathed her great copper-clad face,
This symbol of all that we've dreamed we could be
As nation and as human race.
And what if this Lady were true flesh and bone
Instead of just copper and steel?
How would she then judge us as we stand today
And how speak of what she would feel?
Would she smile and marvel at how we have grown
And all that we've built and achieved?
The words on the plaque at her feet only say
What those who designed her believed:
CHORUS
Here stand I, ye nations; call me Liberty
And give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddling masses that yearn to breathe free,
The refuse of your teeming shore.
Send all these, the homeless and storm-tossed, to me,
For here they shall suffer no more;
I lift up my lamp for all seekers to see
Beside freedom's wide, golden door.
Lord, how many souls have survived ocean's crash
To pass 'neath her towering form
And saw her as proof of salvation assured
From tyrants, privation and storm?
And how many times has her promise been ash
In mouths of a woman or man
Or broken to millions who came and endured
Wrongs such as none should have to stand?
'Twas broken with each lash of slavemasters' whips,
Each shot to a Choctaw brave's heart;
With each midnight knock on a Nisei clan's door
That tore homes and fam'lies apart.
A wail of great anguish would burst from her lips
To see such disgrace to her name;
If she truly lived, she would beg, "Please, no more!"
And hang her head weeping in shame!
REPEAT CHORUS
Some say that she stands for no more than a dream
That never can truly exist,
That our Founding Fathers themselves failed to live
The proud ideals that they did list.
And yet if we have not a goal or a scheme,
How can we achieve them at all?
Though fail we may sometimes, the most we can give
Is what she would ask in her call.
Let all of us learn from what history shows,
The magnificence and the mistakes
And make real the future to which her eyes gaze
No matter what effort it takes.
And those who would shut the door where her torch glows,
Remind them that they may have kin
Who greeted the Lady in long-ago days
Aboard the first ships she let in!
REPEAT CHORUS ENDING WITH:
...I lift up my lamp for all eternity
Beside freedom's wide, golden door.
(c)1999 by Matt G. Leger. Permission to perform, reproduce and distribute
freely granted as long as this credit is maintained. If you record it and it
hits big, I want royalties per ASCAP/BMI standard.
*****
---------------------- MATT G. LEGER -----------------------
Graphic Designer - Webmaster - Illustrator - Wordsmith
New York - Washington - New Orleans
Opinions expressed here are MINE! You can't have 'em!
Liberal Mac-using AOL member - You gotta problem widdat?!
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