John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892). The Poetical Works in Four Volumes. 1892.
Anti-Slavery PoemsIn War Time
To Englishmen
Y
We bore it as became us,
Well knowing that the fettered slave
Left friendly lips no option save
To pity or to blame us.
Not lack of power,” you told us:
We showed our free-state records; still
You mocked, confounding good and ill,
Slave-haters and slaveholders.
Of power and means we checked it;
Lo!—presto, change! its claims you urge,
Send greetings to it o’er the surge,
And comfort and protect it.
In slave-abhorring rigor,
Our Northern palms for conscience’ sake:
To-day you clasp the hands that ache
With “walloping the nigger!”
In blood and tongue our brothers!
We too are heirs of Runnymede;
And Shakespeare’s fame and Cromwell’s deed
Are not alone our mother’s.
Through centuries of story
Our Saxon blood has flowed, and still
We share with you its good and ill,
The shadow and the glory.
Nor length of years can part us:
Your right is ours to shrine and grave,
The common freehold of the brave,
The gift of saints and martyrs.
Our kindred frail and human:
We carp at faults with bitter speech,
The while, for one unshared by each,
We have a score in common.
To England’s Queen, God bless her!
We praised you when your slaves went free:
We seek to unchain ours. Will ye
Join hands with the oppressor?
The bruiser, not the bruisëd?
And must she run, despite the tears
And prayers of eighteen hundred years,
Amuck in Slavery’s crusade?
Too deep for tongue to phrase on!
Tear from your flag its holy cross,
And in your van of battle toss
The pirate’s skull-bone blazon!