Page:The West Indies, and Other Poems.djvu/74
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Tyrant and slave their tribes shall never see,
For God created all his offspring free;
Then Justice, leagued with Mercy, from above,
Shall reign in all the liberty of love;
And the sweet shores beneath the balmy west,
Again shall be 'the islands of the blest.'
For God created all his offspring free;
Then Justice, leagued with Mercy, from above,
Shall reign in all the liberty of love;
And the sweet shores beneath the balmy west,
Again shall be 'the islands of the blest.'
Unutterable mysteries of fate
Involve, O, Africa! thy future state.
—On Niger's banks, in lonely beauty wild,
A Negro-mother carols to her child:
'Son of my widow'd love, my orphan joy!
'Avenge thy father's murder, O, my boy!'
Along those banks the fearless infant strays,
Bathes in the stream, among the eddies plays;
See the boy bounding through the eager race;
The fierce youth, shouting foremost in the chace,
Drives the grim lion from his ancient woods,
And smites the crocodile amidst his floods.
Involve, O, Africa! thy future state.
—On Niger's banks, in lonely beauty wild,
A Negro-mother carols to her child:
'Son of my widow'd love, my orphan joy!
'Avenge thy father's murder, O, my boy!'
Along those banks the fearless infant strays,
Bathes in the stream, among the eddies plays;
See the boy bounding through the eager race;
The fierce youth, shouting foremost in the chace,
Drives the grim lion from his ancient woods,
And smites the crocodile amidst his floods.