Poems Written During the Progress of the Abolition Question In the United States/Plead for the Slave
PLEAD FOR THE SLAVE!
WRITTEN IN AN ALBUM.
Oh, Woman! from thy happy hearth,
Extend thy gentle hand to save
The poor and perishing of earth—
The chained and stricken slave!
Oh! plead for all the sufferings of thy kind—
For the crushed body and darkened mind!
So shall the ancient Earth have not
A nobler name than thine shall be:—
The deeds my martial manhood wrought—
The lofty energies of thought—
The spell of poesy—
These are but frail and fading honors—thine
Shall Time unto Eternity consign!
Yea, and when thrones shall crumble down,
And human pride and grandeur fall,
The herald's line of long renown,
The mitre and the kingly crown,—
Perishing glories all!
The pure devotion of thy generous heart
Shall live in Heaven, of which it is a part!
