Men from England bought and sold me,
Paid my price in paltry gold;

But, though slave* they have enrolled me,
Minds are never to be sold.

5

Still in thought as free as ever,

What are England's rights, I ask,

Me from my delights to sever,

Me to torture, me to task? Fleecy locks and black complexion Cannot forfeit Nature's claim;

Skins may differ, but affection

10

15

Dwells in white and black the same.

Why did all-creating Nature

Make the plant for which we toil? Sighs must fan it, tears must water,

Sweat of ours must dress the soil. Think, ye masters iron-hearted,

Lolling at your jovial boards, Think how many backs have smarted, For the sweets your cane affords.

Is there, as ye sometimes tell us,

Is there One who reigns on high?
Has He bid you buy and sell us,

Speaking from his throne, the sky?
Ask him, if your knotted scourges,
Matches, blood-extorting screws,
Are the means that duty urges
Agents of his will to use?

20

25

30

* Originally printed" though theirs," but altered to though slave," in Ed. 1808, i, 276,

Hark! He answers-Wild tornadoes,
Strewing yonder sea with wrecks,
Wasting towns, plantations, meadows,
Are the voice with which He speaks.
He, foreseeing what vexations

Afric's sons should undergo,

35

Fixed their tyrants' habitations

Where his whirlwinds answer- "No."

40

By our blood in Afric wasted,

Ere our necks received the chain;
By the miseries that we tasted,
Crossing in your barks the main ;
By our sufferings, since ye brought us
To the man-degrading mart;
All sustained by patience, taught us
Only by a broken heart;

Deem our nation brutes no longer,
Till some reason ye shall find
Worthier of regard, and stronger
Than the colour of our kind.
Slaves of gold, whose sordid dealings
Tarnish all your boasted powers,
Prove that you have human feelings,
Ere you proudly question ours!

PITY FOR POOR AFRICANS.*

Video meliora proboque,

Deteriora sequor.

[OVID, Metamorph. vii. 20.]

OWN I am shocked at the purchase of

slaves,

And fear those who buy them and sell them, are knaves;

What I hear of their hardships, their tortures, and

groans,

Is almost enough to draw pity from stones.

I pity them greatly, but I must be mum,
For how could we do without sugar and rum?
Especially sugar, so needful we see?

What, give up our desserts, our coffee, and tea!

5

Besides, if we do, the French, Dutch, and Danes Will heartily thank us, no doubt, for our pains: 10 If we do not buy the poor creatures, they will, And tortures and groans will be multiplied still.

If foreigners likewise would give up the trade, Much more in behalf of your wish might be said; But while they get riches by purchasing blacks, 15 Pray tell me why we may not also go snacks?

* Poems, 1803, i. 317. Written about the same time as the preceding.

mind

Your scruples and arguments bring to my
A story so pat, you may think it is coined,
On purpose to answer you, out of my mint;
But I can assure you I saw it in print.

A youngster at school, more sedate than the rest,
Had once his integrity put to the test;
His comrades had plotted an orchard to rob,
And asked him to go and assist in the job.

He was shocked, sir, like

"Oh no!

you, and answered

20

25

What! rob our good neighbour! I pray you don't

go;

Besides the man's poor, his orchard's his bread, Then think of his children, for they must be fed.”

"You speak very fine, and you look very grave, But apples we want, and apples we'll have; If you will go with us, you shall have a share, If not, you shall have neither apple nor pear.”

They spoke, and Tom pondered-"I see they will go:

30

Poor man! what a pity to injure him so!
Poor man! I would save him his fruit if I could, 35
But staying behind will do him no good.

"If the matter depended alone upon me,

His apples might hang till they dropped from the

tree;

But since they will take them, I think I'll go too, He will lose none by me, though I get a few," 40

His scruples thus silenced, Tom felt more at ease, And went with his comrades the apples to seize; He blamed and protested, but joined in the plan: He shared in the plunder, but pitied the man.

THE MORNING DREAM.*

WAS in the glad season of spring,
Asleep at the dawn of the day,
I dreamed what I cannot but sing,
So pleasant it seemed as I lay.

I dreamed that, on ocean afloat,

Far hence to the westward I sailed,

While the billows high-lifted the boat,

And the fresh-blowing breeze never failed.

In the steerage a woman I saw,

5

Such at least was the form that she wore, 10 Whose beauty impressed me with awe,

Ne'er taught me by woman before. She sat, and a shield at her side

Shed light, like a sun on the waves, And smiling divinely, she cried

"I go to make Freemen of Slaves."

15

Then raising her voice to a strain The sweetest that ear ever heard, *Poems, 1803, i. 317. Written about the same time as the two preceding poems. Cowper wrote these three compositions on the solicitation of his relation, General Cowper.