What reeks she of our helpless wills?
Strange god of Force, with fear, not love, Its trembling worshipper! Can prayer Reach the shut ear of Fate, or move Unpitying Energy to spare?
What doth the cosmic Vastness care?
In vain to this dread Unconcern For the All-Father's love we look; In vain, in quest of it, we turn The storied leaves of Nature's book, The prints her rocky tablets took.
I pray for faith, I long to trust; I listen with my heart, and hear A Voice without a sound: "Be just, Be true, be merciful, revere The Word within thee: God is near!
"A light to sky and earth unknown Pales all their lights: a mightier force Than theirs the powers of Nature own, And, to its goal as at its source, His Spirit moves the Universe.
"Believe and trust. Through stars and suns, Through life and death, through soul and sense, His wise, paternal purpose runs; The darkness of His providence Is star-lit with benign intents."
O joy supreme! I know the Voice, Like none beside on earth or sea; Yea, more, O soul of mine, rejoice, By all that He requires of me, I know what God himself must be.
No picture to my aid I call, I shape no image in my prayer; I only know in Him is all Of life, light, beauty, everywhere, Eternal Goodness here and there!
I know He is, and what He is, Whose one great purpose is the good Of all. I rest my soul on His Immortal Love and Fatherhood; And trust Him, as His children should.
I fear no more. The clouded face Of Nature smiles; through all her things Of time and space and sense I trace The moving of the Spirit's wings, And hear the song of hope she sings.
1886
VOLUME III. ANTI-SLAVERY POEMS and SONGS OF LABOR AND REFORM
CONTENTS:
ANTI-SLAVERY POEMS:
TO WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE THE SLAVE-SHIPS EXPOSTULATION HYMN: "THOU, WHOSE PRESENCE WENT BEFORE"
THE YANKEE GIRL THE HUNTERS OF MEN STANZAS FOR THE TIMES CLERICAL OPPRESSORS A SUMMONS TO THE MEMORY OF THOMAS THE MORAL WARFARE RITNER THE PASTORAL LETTER HYMN: "O HOLY FATHER! JUST AND TRUE"
THE FAREWELL OF A VIRGINIA SLAVE MOTHER PENNSYLVANIA HALL THE NEW YEAR THE RELIC THE WORLD'S CONVENTION MASSACHUSETTS TO VIRGINIA THE CHRISTIAN SLAVE THE SENTENCE OF JOHN L. BROWN TEXAS VOICE OF NEW ENGLAND TO FANEUIL HALL TO MASSACHUSETTS NEW HAMPSHIRE THE PINE-TREE TO A SOUTHERN STATESMAN AT WASHINGTON THE BRANDED HAND THE FREED ISLANDS A LETTER LINES FROM A LETTER TO A YOUNG CLERICAL FRIEND DANIEL NEALL SONG OF SLAVES IN THE DESERT To DELAWARE YORKTOWN RANDOLPH OF ROANOKE THE LOST STATESMAN THE SLAVES OF MARTINIQUE THE CURSE OF THE CHARTER-BREAKERS PAEAN THE CRISIS LINES ON THE PORTRAIT OF A CELEBRATED PUBLISHER DERNE A SABBATH SCENE IN THE EVIL DAY MOLOCH IN STATE STREET OFFICIAL PIETY THE RENDITION ARISEN AT LAST THE HASCHISH FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS' SAKE THE KANSAS EMIGRANTS LETTER FROM A MISSIONARY OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH SOUTH, IN KANSAS, TO A DISTINGUISHED POLITICIAN BURIAL OF BARBER TO PENNSYLVANIA LE MARAIS DU CYGNE.
THE PASS OF THE SIERRA A SONG FOR THE TIME WHAT OF THE DAY?
A SONG, INSCRIBED TO THE FREMONT CLUBS THE PANORAMA ON A PRAYER-BOOK THE SUMMONS TO WILLIAM H. SEWARD IN WAR TIME.
TO SAMUEL E. SEWALL AND HARRIET W. SEWALL THY WILL BE DONE A WORD FOR THE HOUR "EIN FESTE BURG IST UNSER GOTT"
TO JOHN C. FREMONT THE WATCHERS TO ENGLISHMEN MITHRIDATES AT CHIOS AT PORT ROYAL ASTRAEA AT THE CAPITOL THE BATTLE AUTUMN OF 1862 OF ST. HELENA'S ISLAND, S. C.
THE PROCLAMATION ANNIVERSARY POEM BARBARA FRIETCHIE HAT THE BIRDS SAID THE MANTLE OF ST. JOHN DE MATRA LADS DEO!
HYMN FOR THE CELEBRATION OF EMANCIPATION AT NEWBURYPORT
AFTER THE WAR.
THE PEACE AUTUMN TO THE THIRTY-NINTH CONGRESS THE HIVE AT GETTYSBURG HOWARD AT ATLANTA THE EMANCIPATION GROUP THE JUBILEE SINGERS GARRISON
SONGS OF LABOR AND REFORM:
THE QUAKER OF THE OLDEN TIME DEMOCRACY THE GALLOWS SEED-TIME AND HARVEST TO THE REFORMERS OF ENGLAND THE HUMAN SACRIFICE SONGS OF LABOR DEDICATION THE SHOEMAKERS THE FISHERMEN THE LUMBERMEN THE SHIP-BUILDERS THE DROVERS THE HUSKERS THE REFORMER THE PEACE CONVENTION AT BRUSSELS THE PRISONER FOR DEBT THE CHRISTIAN TOURISTS THE MEN OF OLD TO PIUS IX.
CALEF IN BOSTON OUR STATE THE PRISONERS OF NAPLES THE PEACE OF EUROPE ASTRAEA THE DISENTHRALLED THE POOR VOTER ON ELECTION DAY THE DREAM OF PIO NONO THE VOICES THE NEW EXODUS THE CONQUEST OF FINLAND THE EVE OF ELECTION FROM PERUGIA ITALY FREEDOM IN BRAZIL AFTER ELECTION DISARMAMENT THE PROBLEM OUR COUNTRY ON THE BIG HORN
NOTES
ANTI-SLAVERY POEMS
TO WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON
CHAMPION of those who groan beneath Oppression's iron hand In view of penury, hate, and death, I see thee fearless stand.
Still bearing up thy lofty brow, In the steadfast strength of truth, In manhood sealing well the vow And promise of thy youth.
Go on, for thou hast chosen well; On in the strength of God!
Long as one human heart shall swell Beneath the tyrant's rod.
Speak in a slumbering nation's ear, As thou hast ever spoken, Until the dead in sin shall hear, The fetter's link be broken!
I love thee with a brother's love, I feel my pulses thrill, To mark thy spirit soar above The cloud of human ill.
My heart hath leaped to answer thine, And echo back thy words, As leaps the warrior's at the shine And flash of kindred swords!
They tell me thou art rash and vain, A searcher after fame; That thou art striving but to gain A long-enduring name; That thou hast nerved the Afric's hand And steeled the Afric's heart, To shake aloft his vengeful brand, And rend his chain apart.
Have I not known thee well, and read Thy mighty purpose long?
And watched the trials which have made Thy human spirit strong?
And shall the slanderer's demon breath Avail with one like me, To dim the sunshine of my faith And earnest trust in thee?
Go on, the dagger's point may glare Amid thy pathway's gloom; The fate which sternly threatens there Is glorious martyrdom Then onward with a martyr's zeal; And wait thy sure reward When man to man no more shall kneel, And God alone be Lord!
1832.
TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE.
Toussaint L'Ouverture, the black chieftain of Hayti, was a slave on the plantation "de Libertas," belonging to M. Bayou. When the rising of the negroes took place, in 1791, Toussaint refused to join them until he had aided M. Bayou and his family to escape to Baltimore. The white man had discovered in Toussaint many noble qualities, and had instructed him in some of the first branches of education; and the preservation of his life was owing to the negro's gratitude for this kindness. In 1797, Toussaint L'Ouverture was appointed, by the French government, General-in-Chief of the armies of St. Domingo, and, as such, signed the Convention with General Maitland for the evacuation of the island by the British. From this period, until 1801, the island, under the government of Toussaint, was happy, tranquil, and prosperous. The miserable attempt of Napoleon to re-establish slavery in St. Domingo, although it failed of its intended object, proved fatal to the negro chieftain.
Treacherously seized by Leclerc, he was hurried on board a vessel by night, and conveyed to France, where he was confined in a cold subterranean dungeon, at Besancon, where, in April, 1803, he died. The treatment of Toussaint finds a parallel only in the murder of the Duke D'Enghien. It was the remark of Godwin, in his Lectures, that the West India Islands, since their first discovery by Columbus, could not boast of a single name which deserves comparison with that of Toussaint L'Ouverture.
'T WAS night. The tranquil moonlight smile With which Heaven dreams of Earth, shed down Its beauty on the Indian isle,-- On broad green field and white-walled town; And inland waste of rock and wood, In searching sunshine, wild and rude, Rose, mellowed through the silver gleam, Soft as the landscape of a dream.
All motionless and dewy wet, Tree, vine, and flower in shadow met The myrtle with its snowy bloom, Crossing the nightshade's solemn gloom,-- The white cecropia's silver rind Relieved by deeper green behind, The orange with its fruit of gold, The lithe paullinia's verdant fold, The passion-flower, with symbol holy, Twining its tendrils long and lowly, The rhexias dark, and cassia tall, And proudly rising over all, The kingly palm's imperial stem, Crowned with its leafy diadem, Star-like, beneath whose sombre shade, The fiery-winged cucullo played!
How lovely was thine aspect, then, Fair island of the Western Sea Lavish of beauty, even when Thy brutes were happier than thy men, For they, at least, were free!
Regardless of thy glorious clime, Unmindful of thy soil of flowers, The toiling negro sighed, that Time No faster sped his hours.