Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, OLD LIBERIA IS NOT THE PLACE FOR ME, by JOSHUA MCCARTER SIMPSON


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

OLD LIBERIA IS NOT THE PLACE FOR ME, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Come all ye colonizationists
Last Line: In old america!
Subject(s): African Americans; Black Nationalism; Colonialism; Liberia; Negroes; American Blacks


Come all ye Colonizationists,
My muse is off to-day --
Come, listen while she's singing
Her soft and gentle lay.
Before she's done you'll understand
Whoever you may be,
That Old Liberia
Is not the place for me.

Although I'm trodden under foot,
Here in America --
And the right to life and liberty,
From me you take away.
Until my brethren in the South
From chains are all set free --
The Old Liberia
Is not the place for me.

Although (as Moses Walker says,)
There, children never cry:
And he who can well act the hog,
For food will never die;
For there the yams and cocoa-nuts,
And oranges are free --
Yet old Liberia
Is not the place for me.

You say it is a goodly land,
Where milk and honey flows,
And every "Jack" will be a man,
Who there may choose to go.
You say that God appointed there
The black man's destiny --
Yet old Liberia
Is not the place for me.

The sweet potatoes there may grow,
And rice in great supplies;
And purest waters ever flow,
Which dazzle quite your eyes.
Though there they have the sugar-cane,
Also the coffee tree,
Yet old Liberia
Is not the place for me.

Three millions slaves are in the South,
And suffering there to-day:
You've gagged them, yes, you've stopped their mouth,
They dare not even pray!
We, who in art and enterprise,
Are trudging on our way,
You'd have us all to colonize,
In old Liberia.

Give joy or grief -- give ease or pain,
Take life or friends away;
I deem this as my native land,
And here I'm bound to stay,
"I have a mind to be a man
Among white men and free;
And OLD LIBERIA!
Is not the place for me!"

My muse has chanted now too long,
And spent her breath in vain,
In singing of that "Negro Den,"
Across the raging main.
Our blood is now so far dispersed
Among the Anglo-race,
To rid the country of this curse,
Would need a larger space,
And old Liberia
Is rather far away;
I'd rather find a peaceful home
In old America!





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net