Page:Poems written during the progress of the abolition question in the United States.djvu/9



in the glad season of spring, Asleep, at the dawn of the day, I dream'd what I cannot but sing, So pleasant it seem'd as I lay.

I dream'd that on ocean afloat, Far hence to the westward I sail'd, While the billows high lifted the boat, And the fresh blowing breeze never fail'd.

In the steerage a woman I saw— Such at least was the form that she wore— Whose beauty impressed me with awe, Ne'er taught me by woman before.

She sat, and a shield at her side Shed light like a sun on the waves, And smiling divinely, she cried, 'I go to make freemen of slaves.'—

Then raising her voice to a strain, The sweetest that ear ever heard, She sung of the slave's broken chain, Wherever her glory appeared.