Page:The West Indies, and Other Poems.djvu/50
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38
Thus lived the Negro in his native land,
Till Christian cruisers anchor'd on his strand;
Where'er their grasping arms the spoilers spread,
The Negro's joys, the Negro's virtues fled;
Till, far amidst the wilderness unknown,
They flourish'd in the sight of Heaven alone:
While from the coast, with wide and wider sweep,
The race of Mammon dragg'd across the deep
Their sable victims, to that western bourn,
From which no traveller might e'er return,
To blazon in the ears of future slaves
The secrets of the world beyond the waves.
Till Christian cruisers anchor'd on his strand;
Where'er their grasping arms the spoilers spread,
The Negro's joys, the Negro's virtues fled;
Till, far amidst the wilderness unknown,
They flourish'd in the sight of Heaven alone:
While from the coast, with wide and wider sweep,
The race of Mammon dragg'd across the deep
Their sable victims, to that western bourn,
From which no traveller might e'er return,
To blazon in the ears of future slaves
The secrets of the world beyond the waves.
When the loud trumpet of eternal doom
Shall break the mortal bondage of the tomb;
When with the mother's pangs the expiring earth
Shall bring her children forth to second birth;
Then shall the sea's mysterious caverns, spread
With human relics, render up their dead:
Shall break the mortal bondage of the tomb;
When with the mother's pangs the expiring earth
Shall bring her children forth to second birth;
Then shall the sea's mysterious caverns, spread
With human relics, render up their dead: