Page:Poems Sigourney 1827.pdf/176

176  Sublimely frowns upon the fairy toil, Eluding, like the Sybil's fabled page, The curious eye, and anxious search of man.

 

First of that train which cursed the wave, And from the rifled cabin bore, Inheritor of wo,—the slave To bless his palm-tree's shade no more,

Dire engine!—o'er the troubled main Borne on in unresisted state,— Know'st thou within thy dark domain The secrets of thy prison'd freight?—

Hear'st thou their moans whom hope hath fled?— Wild cries, in agonizing starts?— Know'st thou thy humid sails are spread With ceaseless sighs from broken hearts?—

The fetter'd chieftain's burning tear,— The parted lover's mute despair,— The childless mother's pang severe,— The orphan's misery, are there.

Ah!—could'st thou from the scroll of fate The annal read of future years, Stripes,—tortures,—unrelenting hate, And death-gasps drown'd in slavery's tears. 