Page:The West Indies, and Other Poems.djvu/74

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62

Tyrant and slave their tribes shall never see,

For God created all his offspring free ;

Then Justice, leagued with Mercy, from above,

Shall reign in all the liberty of love ;

And the sweet shores beneath the balmy west.

Again shall be * the islands of the blest.*

Unutterable mysteries of fate Involve, O, Africa! thy future state. —On Niger's banks, in lonely beauty wild, A Negro-mot her carols to her child :

  • Son of my widov\M love, my orphan joy !
  • Avenge thy father's murder, O, my boy !*

Along those banks ihe fearless injant strays, Bathes in the stream, among the eddies plays ; See the boy bounding through the eager race ; The fierce youth, shouting foremost in the chace. Drives the grim lion from his ancient woods, And smites the crocodile amidot his floods.

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