Page:Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier (1895).djvu/297

Rh Far out, in peace, the white man’s sail Swayed free before the sunrise gale. Cloud-like that island hung afar,
 * Along the bright horizon’s verge,

O’er which the curse of servile war
 * Rolled its red torrent, surge on surge;

And he, the Negro champion, where
 * In the fierce tumult struggled he?

Go trace him by the fiery glare Of dwellings in the midnight air, The yells of triumph and despair,
 * The streams that crimson to the sea!

Sleep calmly in thy dungeon-tomb,
 * Beneath Besançon’s alien sky,

Dark Haytien! for the time shall come,
 * Yea, even now is nigh,

When, everywhere, thy name shall be Redeemed from color’s infamy; And men shall learn to speak of thee As one of earth’s great spirits, born In servitude, and nursed in scorn, Casting aside the weary weight And fetters of its low estate, In that strong majesty of soul
 * Which knows no color, tongue, or clime,

Which still hath spurned the base control
 * Of tyrants through all time!

Far other hands than mine may wreathe The laurel round thy brow of death, And speak thy praise, as one whose word A thousand fiery spirits stirred, Who crushed his foeman as a worm, Whose step on human hearts fell firm: Be mine the better task to find A tribute for thy lofty mind, Amidst whose gloomy vengeance shone Some milder virtues all thine own, Some gleams of feeling pure and warm, Like sunshine on a sky of storm, Proofs that the Negro’s heart retains Some nobleness amid its chains,— That kindness to the wronged is never
 * Without its excellent reward,

Holy to human-kind and ever
 * Acceptable to God.

ready?” cried the captain;
 * “Ay, ay!” the seamen said;

Heave up the worthless lubbers,—
 * The dying and the dead.”

Up from the slave-ship’s prison
 * Fierce, bearded heads were thrust:

Now let the sharks look to it,—
 * Toss up the dead ones first!”

Corpse after corpse came up,—
 * Death had been busy there;

Where every blow is mercy,
 * Why should the spoiler spare?

Corpse after corpse they cast
 * Sullenly from the ship,