Page:Memoir and poems of Phillis Wheatley, a native African and a slave.djvu/136

130 I sigh, yet leave them all behind,

To gain the object of my mind.

And wilt thou, love, command my soul,

And waft me with a light control?

Adieu to all the blooms of May,

Farewell—I fly with love away!

I leave my parents here behind,

And all my friends—to love resigned—

'Tis grief to go, but death to stay:

Farewell—I 'm gone with love away!

Alas! and am I born for this,

To wear this slavish chain?

Deprived of all created bliss,

Through hardship, toil and pain!

How long have I in bondage lain,

And languished to be free!

Alas! and must I still complain—

Deprived of liberty.

Oh, Heaven! and is there no relief

This side the silent grave—

To soothe the pain—to quell the grief

And anguish of a slave?