O, Pity The Slave Mother
I pity the slave mother, careworn and weary,
Who sighs as she presses her babe to her breast;
I lament her sad fate, all so hopeless and dreary,
I lament for her woes, and her wrongs unredressed.
O who can imagine her heart's deep emotion,
As she thinks of her children about to be sold;
You may picture the bounds of the rock-girdled ocean,
But the grief of that mother can never be known.
The mildew of slavery has blighted each blossom,
That ever has bloomed in her path-way below;
It has froze every fountain that gushed in her bosom,
And chilled her heart's verdure with pitiless woe;
Her parents, her kindred, all crushed by oppression;
Her husband still doomed in its desert to stay;
No arm to protect from the tyrant's aggression-
She must weep as she treads on her desolate way.
O, slave mother, hope! see-the nation is shaking!
The arm of the Lord is awake to thy wrong!
The slave-holder's heart now with terror is quaking,
Salvation and Mercy to Heaven belong!
Rejoice, O rejoice! for the child thou art rearing,
May one day lift up its unmanacled form,
While hope, to thy heart, like the rain-bow so cheering,
Is born, like the rain-bow, 'mid tempest and storm.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:05 min read
- 39 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABABCXCX DEDECFCF GHGHGIGI |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,158 |
Words | 213 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8 |
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"O, Pity The Slave Mother" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 10 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/3431/o,-pity-the-slave-mother>.
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