 | Sonnets by the Rev. Charles Turner [i.e. Charles Tennyson] |  |
42
AUTOCRATIC POLICY OF THE FEDERAL AMERICANS.
At length, a fierce autocracy is seenInstall'd aloft in Freedom's very seat;
A throne built on the anger of defeat—
A virtual crown accorded in a spleen;
The North, which brawled for Freedom and her rights:
The North, which talk'd so big of brotherhood,
Hath dared for very rage a hundred fights,
When once her will was traversed! Once withstood,
She opened condor's wings, and cried for blood:
And soared at once to sheer despotic heights—
And so we see, O saddest of all sights!
A ravening temper, deaf to all things good;
While the poor slaves, cajoled by warring whites,
Drift between North and South like floating wood.
| Sonnets by the Rev. Charles Turner [i.e. Charles Tennyson] | |