Читать книгу Selected Poems of Bernard Barton, the 'Quaker Poet' - Christopher Stokes W. - Страница 13

STANZAS ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TRADE

Respectfully Inscrib’d to the Members of the African Institution

Again the rapid flight of time brings round

The sacred hour to virtue justly dear:

My muse! commemorate, with joyful sound,

An hour which unborn ages shall revere.

E’en that glad hour which wip’d the bitter tear 5

From Afric’s cheek, and cast her chains away:

Freedom, humanity, and justice, hear!

To you I dedicate this votive lay,

And consecrate to you this ever glorious day.

All hail, ye heavenly band! your holy fire 10

Inflam’d with virtuous ardour Clarkson’s breast;

Awoke that zeal which labour ne’er could tire,

Danger affright, nor av’rice lull to rest.

He saw poor Afric’s sable sons opprest;

Saw them, transported from their native shore, 15

Meet stern-eyed death in all his horrors drest,

Or life more horrible than death deplore.

Such were the scenes he saw—scenes we behold no more.

Clarkson! and Wilberforce! thrice honour’d names!

Ye shine conspicuous ’mid that chosen band, 20

Whose steady zeal a nation’s reverence claims,

Whose generous labours have redeem’d the land.

And could a humble poet’s trembling hand

Present to merit half the tribute due,

Thy name, illustrious Gloster! forth should stand 25

Amid the bold disinterested few,

Who prejudice defied, and spurn’d her venal crew.

Among the hosts who hail with just applause

This joyful hour, my partial eyes survey

A sect, whose ardent zeal in virtue’s cause, 30

Prompts me the tribute of respect to pay.

Ye Friends of Peace! to you this glorious day

Is doubly sanctified, is doubly dear;

On Afric’s shores no more shall martial fray

Infringe that sacred law your souls revere; 35

But strife and war shall cease, and happier days appear.

On Guinea’s coast, where once the shriek of wo

Proclaim’d the reign of anguish and despair;

Where avarice sunk the man the brute below,

And christian monsters mock’d the captive’s prayer; 40

A different aspect shall that region wear:

There scenes of bliss shall once more greet the eye;

The festive song the evening gale shall bear

In broken accents to the distant sky—

Blest sounds of peaceful mirth, and village revelry. 45

O Thou! whose sceptre sways this earthly ball,

This trivial atom in creation’s round;

“Who seest with equal eye as God of all,”

A Negro fetter’d, or a Monarch crown’d:

O Thou! whose power and goodness none can bound, 50

Heal Afric’s wrongs, and pardon Europe’s crime;

Proclaim through torrid wastes that joyful sound,

Which Jordan’s vallies heard in earlier time:

Salvation’s gladdening voice, and Gospel truths sublime!

E’en while I sing, behold! a beam of light 55

Shines tremulously o’er my raptur’d mind,

Foreboding that the soul’s protracted night

Shall, like the body’s patient sufferings, find

An end at last; for charity, more kind

Than proud munificence could ever boast, 60

To leave no entrance for regret behind,

Hath rais’d of pious ranks a countless host,

Who rear her standard high, and shout from coast to coast.

The Bible! sacred pledge of love divine,

The christian’s treasure, now the heathen’s prize, 65

Shall soon complete redemption’s grand design,

And bring salvation home to Afric’s eyes.

Soon shall the sun of righteousness arise,

And shine o’er every zone from pole to pole:

Then, O my Country! ever just as wise, 70

’Till planets in their orbits cease to roll,

Shalt thou remain enshrin’d in every grateful soul.