Fugitive Poetry. 1600–1878/The Negro's Retort
The Negro's Retort.
As lately returned from the Isles of the West,
Lorenzo, with health and prosperity blest,
And surrounded by friends, at his table presided,
Where all the good things of the world were provided,
A domestic, with Africa's hue on his skin,
A basket of apples and chestnuts brought in.
Lorenzo, with wine and good fellowship warm,
To laugh at poor Mungo conceived it no harm;
And exclaimed, as he held up the fruit to his view,
"This apple's a white man, this chestnut is you."
"Ah! Massa," said Mungo, "acknowledge I must
The connexion is good, the comparison just;
But negro, like chestnut, though dark is his skin,
Is white, firm, and sound, as the kernel within;
While though beauteous, like apple, is Buckra, so smart,
He has oft many little black grains at his heart."
Lorenzo, with health and prosperity blest,
And surrounded by friends, at his table presided,
Where all the good things of the world were provided,
A domestic, with Africa's hue on his skin,
A basket of apples and chestnuts brought in.
Lorenzo, with wine and good fellowship warm,
To laugh at poor Mungo conceived it no harm;
And exclaimed, as he held up the fruit to his view,
"This apple's a white man, this chestnut is you."
"Ah! Massa," said Mungo, "acknowledge I must
The connexion is good, the comparison just;
But negro, like chestnut, though dark is his skin,
Is white, firm, and sound, as the kernel within;
While though beauteous, like apple, is Buckra, so smart,
He has oft many little black grains at his heart."