Anti-slavery poems : songs of labor and reform / by John Greenleaf Whittier [electronic text]
About this Item
- Title
- Anti-slavery poems : songs of labor and reform / by John Greenleaf Whittier [electronic text]
- Author
- Whittier, John Greanleaf, 1807-1892
- Publication
- [New York, N.Y.]: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
- 1888
- Rights/Permissions
The University of Michigan Library provides access to these materials for educational and research purposes. These materials are in the public domain in the United States. If you have questions about the collection please contact Digital Content & Collections at dlps-help@umich.edu, or if you have concerns about the inclusion of an item in this collection, please contact Library Information Technology at LibraryIT-info@umich.edu.
DPLA Rights Statement: No Copyright - United States
- Link to this Item
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http://name.umdl.umich.edu/BAE0044.0001.001
- Cite this Item
-
"Anti-slavery poems : songs of labor and reform / by John Greenleaf Whittier [electronic text]." In the digital collection American Verse Project. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/BAE0044.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 8, 2024.
Pages
Page 278
O'er those foul altars streaming with warm blood, Permitted in another age and clime? Why cite that law with which the bigot Jew Rebuked the Pagan's mercy, when he knew No evil in the Just One? Wherefore turn To the dark, cruel past? Can ye not learn From the pure Teacher's life how mildly free Is the great Gospel of Humanity? The Flamen's knife is bloodless, and no more Mexitli's altars soak with human gore, No more the ghastly sacrifices smoke Through the green arches of the Druid's oak; And ye of milder faith, with your high claim. Of prophet-utterance in the Holiest name, Will ye become the Druids of our time! Set up your scaffold-altars in our land, And, consecrators of Law's darkest crime, Urge to its loathsome work the hangman's hand? Beware, lest human nature, roused at last, From its peeled shoulder your encumbrance cast, And, sick to loathing of your cry for blood, Rank ye with those who led their victims round The Celt's red altar and the Indian's mound, Abhorred of Earth and Heaven, a pagan brotherhood!
1842.