Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, POEMS ON THE SLAVE TRADE: 1, by ROBERT SOUTHEY


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POEMS ON THE SLAVE TRADE: 1, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Hold your mad hands! For ever on your plain
Last Line: And calls, to share the prey, his kindred demon war.
Subject(s): Abolitionists; Slavery; Anti-slavery; Serfs


Hold your mad hands! for ever on your plain
Must the gorged vulture clog his beak with blood?
For ever must your Niger's tainted flood
Roll to the ravenous shark his banquet slain?
Hold your mad hands! what demon prompts to rear
The arm of Slaughter? on your savage shore
Can hell-sprung Glory claim the feast of gore,
With laurels watered by the widow's tear
Wreathing his helmet crown? lift high the spear!
And like the desolating whirlwind's sweep,
Plunge ye yon bark of anguish in the deep;
For the pale fiend, cold-hearted Commerce there
Breathes his gold-gendered pestilence afar,
And calls, to share the prey, his kindred demon War.





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