Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SAVAGES, by ABBIE FARWELL BROWN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SAVAGES, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The heathen hailed us from the beach
Last Line: Who set thy temple on the hill.
Subject(s): Murder; Native Americans; Pilgrimages & Pilgrims; War; Indians Of America; American Indians; Indians Of South America


THE Heathen hailed us from the beach,
Prayed the new gods to bless and teach.
They worshiped us and gave us food,
Sweet water and maize, nuts from the wood;
Showed us safe harbor. Liquor and beads
Got us broad acres for our needs;
We set shrewd boundaries to the farms.
Too generously we loaned them arms;
Froward they grew and scorned our laws,
They bared white fangs, unsheathed fierce claws.
Haunts in the wilderness they made
To spy upon our barricade,
Our meeting-house and granaries,
Coveting them with cruel eyes.
One stole a heifer from our yard;
We hanged the whelp; they scalped our guard;
We shot their chief and eight tall braves.
The devils swarmed from dens and caves,
And burned the roofs above our heads;
Murdered the children in their beds!
With righteous wrath we armed for war,
Scouring the forest near and far,
River and lake with uncouth name,
All the fair region once their claim,
Killing the Redskin fiends at sight.
At last we rid us of the blight;
We made the savage race to cease,
And earned a Sabbath Day of peace.
We walled the tilth and reared this town.

O great Jehovah looking down,
Reward our pious people still,
Who set Thy temple on the hill.





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