Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TO THE FIRST SLAVE SHIP, by LYDIA HUNTLEY SIGOURNEY Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: First of that train which cursed the wave Last Line: A friend, -- a father in their god. Subject(s): God; Pain; Ships & Shipping; Slavery; Tears; Suffering; Misery; Serfs | ||||||||
First of that train which cursed the wave, And from the rifled cabin bore, Inheritor of wo, -- the slave To bless his palm-tree's shade no more. Dire engine! -- o'er the troubled main Borne on in unresisted state, -- Know'st thou within thy dark domain The secrets of thy prison'd freight? -- Hear'st thou their moans whom hope hath fled? -- Wild cries, in agonizing starts? -- Know'st thou thy humid sails are spread With ceaseless sighs from broken hearts? -- The fetter'd chieftain's burning tear. -- The parted lover's mute despair, -- The childless mother's pang severe, -- The orphan's misery, are there. Ah! -- could'st thou from the scroll of fate The annal read of future years, Stripes, -- tortures, -- unrelenting hate. And death-gasps drown'd in slavery's tears. Down, -- down, -- beneath the cleaving main Thou fain would'st plunge where monsters lie, Rather than ope the gates of pain For time and for Eternity. -- Oh Afric! -- what has been thy crime? -- That thus like Eden's fratricide, A mark is set upon thy clime, And every brother shuns thy side. -- Yet are thy wrongs, thou long-distrest! -- Thy burdens, by the world unweigh'd, Safe in that Unforgetful Breast Where all the sins of earth are laid. -- Poor outcast slave! -- Our guilty land Should tremble while she drinks thy tears, Or sees in vengeful silence stand, The beacon of thy shorten'd years; -- Should shrink to hear her sons proclaim The sacred truth that heaven is just, -- Shrink even at her Judge's name, -- "Jehovah, -- Saviour of the opprest." The Sun upon thy forehead frown'd, But Man more cruel far than he, Dark fetters on thy spirit bound: -- Look to the mansions of the free! Look to that realm where chains unbind, -- Where the pale tyrant drops his rod, And where the patient sufferers find A friend, -- a father in their God. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...JOY IN THE WOODS by CLAUDE MCKAY ELIZABETH KECKLEY: 30 YEARS A SLAVE AND 4 YEARS IN THE WHITE HOUSE by E. ETHELBERT MILLER EMANCIPATION by ELIZABETH ALEXANDER JOHN BROWN'S BODY by STEPHEN VINCENT BENET COLUMBUS [JANUARY, 1487] by LYDIA HUNTLEY SIGOURNEY |
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