Page:The West Indies, and Other Poems.djvu/69
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
57
—When Clarkson his victorious course began,4
Unyielding in the cause of God and man,
Wise, patient, persevering to the end,
No guile could thwart, no power his purpose bend,
He rose o'er Afric like the sun in smiles,
He rests in glory on the western isles:
—When Wilberforce, the minister of grace,
The new Las Casas of a ruin'd race,5
With angel-might opposed the rage of hell,
And fought like Michael, till the dragon fell:
—When Pitt, supreme, amid the senate, rose
The Negro's friend, among the Negro's foes;
Yet while his tones like heaven's high thunder broke,
No fire descended to consume the yoke:
—When Fox, all-eloquent for freedom stood,
With speech resistless as the voice of blood,
The voice that cries through all the Patriot's veins,
When at his feet his country groans in chains;
The voice that whispers in the mother's breast,
When smiles her infant in his rosy rest;
Unyielding in the cause of God and man,
Wise, patient, persevering to the end,
No guile could thwart, no power his purpose bend,
He rose o'er Afric like the sun in smiles,
He rests in glory on the western isles:
—When Wilberforce, the minister of grace,
The new Las Casas of a ruin'd race,5
With angel-might opposed the rage of hell,
And fought like Michael, till the dragon fell:
—When Pitt, supreme, amid the senate, rose
The Negro's friend, among the Negro's foes;
Yet while his tones like heaven's high thunder broke,
No fire descended to consume the yoke:
—When Fox, all-eloquent for freedom stood,
With speech resistless as the voice of blood,
The voice that cries through all the Patriot's veins,
When at his feet his country groans in chains;
The voice that whispers in the mother's breast,
When smiles her infant in his rosy rest;