THE SLAVE SINGING AT MIDNIGHT. LOUD he sang the psalm of David! He, a Negro and enslaved, Sang of Israel's victory, Sang of Zion, bright and free. In that hour, when night is calmest, Songs of triumph, and ascriptions, And the voice of his devotion Paul and Silas, in their prison, But, alas! what holy angel THE WITNESSES. 149 THE WITNESSES. IN Ocean's wide domains, With shackled feet and hands. Beyond the fall of dews, There the black Slave-ship swims, These are the bones of Slaves; Within Earth's wide domains Dead bodies, that the kite In deserts makes its prey; Murders, that with affright All evil thoughts and deeds; These are the woes of Slaves; THE QUADROON GIRL. THE Slaver in the broad lagoon Under the shore his boat was tied, Odors of orange-flowers, and spice, Reached them from time to time, Like airs that breathe from Paradise Upon a world of crime. The Planter, under his roof of thatch, He said, "My ship at anchor rides I only wait the evening tides, And the rising of the moon." Before them, with her face upraised, Like one half curious, half amazed, THE QUADROON GIRL. Her eyes were large, and full of light, No garment she wore save a kirtle bright, And on her lips there played a smile "The soil is barren,--the farm is old;" His heart within him was at strife For he knew whose passions gave her life, But the voice of nature was too weak; 151 Then pale as death grew the maiden's cheek, Her hands as icy cold. The Slaver led her from the door, He led her by the hand, To be his slave and paramour THE WARNING. BEWARE! The Israelite of old, who tore A pander to Philistine revelry,— Upon the pillars of the temple laid His desperate hands, and in its overthrow Destroyed himself, and with him those who made A cruel mockery of his sightless woe; The poor, blind Slave, the scoff and jest of all, There is a poor, blind Samson in this land, Shorn of his strength, and bound in bonds of steel, Who may, in some grim revel, raise his hand, Till the vast Temple of our liberties A shapeless mass of wreck and rubbish lies. |