Page:May-day and other pieces, Emerson, 1867.djvu/93

 VOLUNTARIES.

I.

OW and mournful be the strain,

Haughty thought be far from me;

Tones of penitence and pain,

Meanings of the tropic sea;

Low and tender in the cell

Where a captive sits in chains,

Crooning ditties treasured well

From his Afric's torrid plains.

Sole estate his sire bequeathed—

Hapless sire to hapless son—

Was the wailing song he breathed,

And his chain when life was done.