Poems :: :: University of Virginia Library

“Nay! do not curse him, boy, for curses come
“Back on the sender, like an eagle home;
“And he is wise and gentle, and will mourn
“More than we wot of when he knows us gone.
“Not thy fond father robs thee of thy life,
“But she—the bitter-hearted Hebrew wife.
“Her hate hath doomed us to this deep distress,
“And made our grave in this drear wilderness.
“Alas! alas! the proudest palms that grow
“Will shade the hewer who must lay them low.
“She could not brook thy bold Egyptian blood,
“The untamed workings of thy wayward mood;
“She could not hope to tear my child from me
“With tongue so bitter and with eye so free;
“And by the throne of Pharaoh! though that eye
“Hath sent us hitherward alone to die,
“Though thou must forfeit to the Hebrew wife
“Thy father's love, thy mother, and thy life,
“Yet could I love thee more than I have loved,
“Or better prove that love than I have proved,
“It would be, son of mine! that thou didst scorn

“The yoke so basely by thy mother borne;
“That thou didst mock thy little tyrant's rage,
“Nor own my slavery thine heritage.”