Page:Poems Sigourney, 1834.pdf/187

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was an hungered, and ye gave her bread, Unclad and shuddering from the inclement blast, And ye, in love, a sheltering mantle spread; For this a voice of gratitude hath past O'er the broad ocean-wave, and thousands bear Your name upon their lips, in the hushed hour of prayer.

There is a cry for knowledge, from that clime Which held her lamp to earth's benighted eye, In the dim ages of remembered time: Rise! shed the beams of immortality On the mind's prison-house: so shall your fame Endure, when this world's pomp hath fed Destruction's flame.

I saw your infants for the needle's care Renounce their promised holiday-delight: Saw even your servants with a joyous air Give for the "classic land" their hard earned mite; Mothers! ye gazed with rapture-kindled brow, Ye prompted that blest work, why do ye linger now?

Sisters! on whom the manna-shower is strewed, Who at eternal fountains drink your fill, Should a redundance of your angel food Turn from the starving mind Compassion's thrill? Hear ye the gasping of the famished soul? Haste! reach the bread of Heaven; say to the sick—be whole.