Page:The West Indies, and Other Poems.djvu/49

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More than his wants his flocks and fields afford ; He loves to greet the stranger at his board :

' The rains of night descended on his head ;
 * The winds were roaring and the White Man fled ;


 * The poor White Man sat down beneath our tree,


 * Weary and faint, and far from home was he :


 * For him no mother fills with milk the bowl,


 * No wife prepares the bread to cheer his soul :

< — Pity the poor White Man, who sought our tree,

Thus sung the Negro's daughters ; — once again,
 * No wife, no mother, and no home has he.'

O, that the poor White Man might hear that strain !

— Whether the victim of the treacherous Moor ;

Or from the Negro's hospitable door

Spurn'd, as a spy, from Europe's hateful clime,

And left to perish for thy country's crime ;

Or destin'd still, when all thy wanderings cease,

On Albion's lovely lap to rest in peace ;

Pilgrim ! in heaven or earth, where'er thou be,

Angels of mercy guide and comfort thee !

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