Selected Poems by William J. GraysonNeale publishing Company, 1907 - 152 pages |
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Abolitionists arms band battle beguile beneath bestows blessing blood brave bread breeze bright Briton charm cheer chief climes clouds country's courser dare deed deep demagogues deplore distant fame fate fear feast Fezzan field fierce flash flowers forest forest warrior fortune fragrant gallant gentle gifts grace grave Grayson hand happier healing hand heart Heaven's hireling hope host hunter impart iron heel labor land light maize Marion's Marion's men master matchless meet mortal mourns native negro night nobler numbers o'er pauper peace Petigru pines praise prayer pride quiet race rapture ready rise savage scene scorn scout Seraphic shade shining shore sinks skies skill slave slavery sloth smile sorrow South Carolina sport spread spurn stern stood stream strife summer swamp sweep sweet sword toil trees troop vainly voice wassail watch wave Wemys wigwam wild wings wood yeomen yields
Popular passages
Page 42 - PART SECOND See yonder poor o'erlabored wight, So abject, mean, and vile, Who begs a brother of the earth To give him leave to toil, And see his lordly fellow-worm The poor petition spurn, Unmindful though a weeping wife And helpless offspring
Page 13 - PART FIRST Oh, mortal man, that livest here by toil, Do not complain of this thy hard estate; That, like an emmet, thou must ever
Page 23 - sway. But Providence, by his o'erruling will, Transmutes to lasting good the transient ill, Makes crime itself the means of mercy prove, And avarice minister to works of love. In this new home, whate'er the negro's fate— More blessed his life than in his native state ! No mummeries dupe, no Fetich charms affright,
Page 33 - His negro griefs and sympathies produce No nobler fruits than malice and abuse; To each fanatical delusion prone, He damns all creeds and parties but his own, Brawls, with hot zeal, for every fool and knave, The foreign felon and the skulking slave ; Even Chaplin, sneaking from his jail, receives
Page 33 - The Tribune's sympathy for punished thieves, And faction's fiercest rabble always find A kindred nature in the Tribune's mind; Ready each furious impulse to obey, He raves and ravens like a beast of prey, To bloody outrage stimulates his friends, And fires the Capitol for party ends.
Page 15 - least reward. In squalid hut—a kennel for the poor, Or noisome cellar, stretched upon the floor, His clothing rags, of filthy straw his bed, With offal from the gutter daily fed, Thrust out from Nature's board, the hireling lies: No place for him that common board supplies, No neighbor helps, no
Page 26 - dews; Without whose help no civic feast is made, No bridal cake delights—without whose aid China's enchanting cup itself appears To lose its virtue, and no longer cheers, Arabia's fragrant berry idly wastes Its pure aroma on untutored tastes, Limes of delicious scent and golden rind Their pungent treasures unregarded find,
Page 35 - hue, Martyrs, than zealous Paul more tried and true, Demoniac masters, sentimental slaves, Mulatto cavaliers, and Creole knaves— Monsters each portrait drawn, each story told ! What then ? The book may bring its weight in gold ; Enough ! upon the crafty rule she leans, That makes the purpose justify the means, Concocts the venom, and, with eager gaze,
Page 22 - the main, Like dark hills rising on a verdant plain ; Trees of new beauty, climbing to the skies, With various verdure meet his wondering eyes: Gigantic oaks, the monarchs of the wood, Whose stooping branches sweep the rising flood, And, robed in solemn draperies of moss, To stormy winds their proud
Page 28 - violence and lust, A slave of slaves, the negro licks the dust, Unchanged since Heaven's creative word outspread The seas, and heaved the mountains from their bed. Hence is the negro come, by God's command, For wiser teaching to a foreign land ; If they who brought him were by Mammon driven, Still