 | The anti-slavery poems of John Pierpont |  |
53
PRAYER OF THE ABOLITIONIST.
We ask not that the slave should lie,
As lies his master, at his ease,
Beneath a silken canopy,
Or in the shade of blooming trees.
As lies his master, at his ease,
Beneath a silken canopy,
Or in the shade of blooming trees.
We mourn not that the man should toil;
'T is nature's need—'t is God's decree;
But, let the hand that tills the soil,
Be, like the wind that fans it, free.
'T is nature's need—'t is God's decree;
But, let the hand that tills the soil,
Be, like the wind that fans it, free.
We ask not ‘eye for eye’—that all,
Who forge the chain and ply the whip,
Should feel their torture—that the thrall
Should wield the scourge of mastership—
Who forge the chain and ply the whip,
Should feel their torture—that the thrall
Should wield the scourge of mastership—
54
We only ask, O God, that they,
Who bind a brother, may relent:
But, Great Avenger, we do pray
That the wrong-doer may repent.
Who bind a brother, may relent:
But, Great Avenger, we do pray
That the wrong-doer may repent.
1842.
| The anti-slavery poems of John Pierpont | |