Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Africa: Vol. XXIV. 1876–79. | | | | Introductory to Africa | | Africa | | James Montgomery (1771–1854) |
| | (From The West Indies)
IS not the negro blest? His generous soil | |
| With harvest-plenty crowns his simple toil; | |
| More than his wants his flocks and fields afford: | |
| He loves to greet the stranger at his board: | |
| “The winds were roaring, and the white man fled, | 5 |
| The rains of night descended on his head; | |
| The poor white man sat down beneath our tree, | |
| Weary and faint, and far from home was he: | |
| For him no mother fills with milk the bowl, | |
| No wife prepares the bread to cheer his soul;— | 10 |
| Pity the poor white man who sought our tree, | |
| No wife, no mother, and no home, has he.” | |
| Thus sang the negro’s daughters; once again, | |
| O that the poor white man might hear that strain! | |
| Whether the victim of the treacherous Moor, | 15 |
| Or from the negro’s hospitable door | |
| Spurned as a spy from Europe’s hateful clime, | |
| And left to perish for thy country’s crime; | |
| Or destined still, when all thy wanderings cease, | |
| On Albion’s lovely lap to rest in peace; | 20 |
| Pilgrim! in heaven or earth, where’er thou be, | |
| Angels of mercy guide and comfort thee! | | | | |
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