 | Jones Very : The Complete Poems |  |
Slavery
Not by the railing tongues of angry men,Who have not learned their passions to control;
Not by the scornful words of press and pen,
That now ill-omened fly from pole to pole;
Not by fierce party cries; nor e'en by blood,
Can this our Country's guilt be washed away;
In vain for this would flow the crimson flood,
In vain for this would man his brother slay.
Not by such means; but by the power of prayer;
Of faith in God, joined with a sense of sin;
These, these alone can save us from despair,
And o'er the mighty wrong a victory win;
These, these alone can make us free from all
That doth ourselves, our Country still inthral.
Poem No. 362; c. 4 January 1851
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