Poems for Children Sigourney/Difference of Color

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4032202Poems for Children SigourneyDifference of Color1836Lydia Sigourney



Difference of Color.


God gave to Afric's sons
    A brow of sable dye,
And spread the country of their birth
    Beneath a burning sky,
And with a cheek of olive, made
    The little Hindoo child,
And darkly stain'd the forest-tribes
    That roam our western wild.


To me he gave a form
    Of fairer, whiter clay;
But am I, therefore, in his sight
    Respected more than they?
No,—'tis the hue of deeds and thoughts
    He traces in his Book,
'Tis the complexion of the heart
    On which he deigns to look.

Not by the tinted cheek
    That fades away so fast,
But by the color of the soul,
    We shall be judg'd at last.
And God, the Judge, will look at me
    With anger in his eyes,
If I, my brother's darker brow
    Should ever dare despise.