Page:The West Indies, and Other Poems.djvu/40
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—Rush'd o'er the theatre of splendid toils,
To brave the dangers and divide the spoils.
To brave the dangers and divide the spoils.
Britannia,—she who scathed the crest of Spain,
And won the trident sceptre of the main,
When to the raging wind and ravening tide
She gave the huge Armada's scatter'd pride,
Smit by the thunder-wielding hand that hurl'd
Her vengeance round the wave-encircled world;
—Britannia shared the glory and the guilt,
By her were Slavery's island-altars built,
And fed with human victims;—while the cries
Of blood, demanding vengeance from the skies,
Assail'd her traders' grovelling hearts in vain,
—Hearts dead to sympathy, alive to gain,
Hard from impunity, with avarice cold,
Sordid as earth, insensible as gold.
And won the trident sceptre of the main,
When to the raging wind and ravening tide
She gave the huge Armada's scatter'd pride,
Smit by the thunder-wielding hand that hurl'd
Her vengeance round the wave-encircled world;
—Britannia shared the glory and the guilt,
By her were Slavery's island-altars built,
And fed with human victims;—while the cries
Of blood, demanding vengeance from the skies,
Assail'd her traders' grovelling hearts in vain,
—Hearts dead to sympathy, alive to gain,
Hard from impunity, with avarice cold,
Sordid as earth, insensible as gold.
Thus through a night of ages, in whose shade
The sons of darkness plied the infernal trade,
The sons of darkness plied the infernal trade,