"Formerly A Slave"

________________________________________________
Title:     "Formerly A Slave"
Author: Herman Melville [More Titles by Melville]

_An idealized Portrait, by E. Vedder, in the Spring
Exhibition of the National Academy, 1865_

The sufferance of her race is shown,
And retrospect of life,
Which now too late deliverance dawns upon;
Yet is she not at strife.

Her children's children they shall know
The good withheld from her;
And so her reverie takes prophetic cheer--
In spirit she sees the stir.

Far down the depth of thousand years,
And marks the revel shine;
Her dusky face is lit with sober light,
Sibylline, yet benign.

[The end]
Herman Melville's poem: "Formerly A Slave"

________________________________________________



GO TO TOP OF SCREEN