Page:The West Indies, and Other Poems.djvu/49
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More than his wants his flocks and fields afford;
He loves to greet the stranger at his board:
'The winds were roaring and the White Man fled;
'The rains of night descended on his head;
'The poor White Man sat down beneath our tree,
'Weary and faint, and far from home was he:
'For him no mother fills with milk the bowl,
'No wife prepares the bread to cheer his soul:
'—Pity the poor White Man, who sought our tree,
'No wife, no mother, and no home has he.'
Thus sung the Negro's daughters ;—once again,
O, that the poor White Man might hear that strain!
—Whether the victim of the treacherous Moor;
Or from the Negro's hospitable door
Spurn'd, as a spy, from Europe's hateful clime,
And left to perish for thy country's crime;
Or destin'd still, when all thy wanderings cease,
On Albion's lovely lap to rest in peace;
Pilgrim! in heaven or earth, where'er thou be,
Angels of mercy guide and comfort thee!
He loves to greet the stranger at his board:
'The winds were roaring and the White Man fled;
'The rains of night descended on his head;
'The poor White Man sat down beneath our tree,
'Weary and faint, and far from home was he:
'For him no mother fills with milk the bowl,
'No wife prepares the bread to cheer his soul:
'—Pity the poor White Man, who sought our tree,
'No wife, no mother, and no home has he.'
Thus sung the Negro's daughters ;—once again,
O, that the poor White Man might hear that strain!
—Whether the victim of the treacherous Moor;
Or from the Negro's hospitable door
Spurn'd, as a spy, from Europe's hateful clime,
And left to perish for thy country's crime;
Or destin'd still, when all thy wanderings cease,
On Albion's lovely lap to rest in peace;
Pilgrim! in heaven or earth, where'er thou be,
Angels of mercy guide and comfort thee!