Slave In the Dismal Swamp, The
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
In dark fens of the Dismal Swamp
The hunted Negro lay;
He saw the fire of the midnight camp,
And heard at times a horse's tramp
And a bloodhound's distant bay.
Where will-o'-the-wisps and glow-worms shine,
In bulrush and in brake;
Where waving mosses shroud the pine,
And the cedar grows, and the poisonous vine
Is spotted like the snake;
Where hardly a human foot could pass,
Or a human heart would dare,
On the quaking turf of the green morass
He crouched in the rank and tangled grass,
Like a wild beast in his lair.
A poor old slave, infirm and lame;
Great scars deformed his face;
On his forehead he bore the brand of shame,
And the rags, that hid his mangled frame,
Were the livery of disgrace.
All things above were bright and fair,
All things were glad and free;
Lithe squirrels darted here and there,
And wild birds filled the echoing air
With songs of Liberty!
On him alone was the doom of pain,
From the morning of his birth;
On him alone the curse of Cain
Fell, like a flail on the garnered grain,
And struck him to the earth!
LOVE POEMS WANTED
:
Click here
if you would like to submit your
love poems
for possible inclusion on this site. We update our web site once per month. We will not post poems that are sexuallyexplicit.
Here Are Our Top Love Poems...
Love Poems 1
I Would Live in Your Love
by Sara Teasdale (1884-1933)
Love Poems 2
Sonnet From the Portuguese V
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-61)
Love Poems 3
The Bungler
by Amy Lowell (1874-1925)
Love Poems 4
Blue and White
by Mary Elizabeth Coleridge (1861-1907)
Love Poems 5
Desideria
by William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
Love Poems 6
The Taxi
by Amy Lowell (1874-1925)
Love Poems 7
Daffodils
by William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
Love Poems 8
Song
by Sir William Watson (1858-1935)
Love Poems 9
To a Butterfly
by William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
Love Poems 10
Sonnet From the Portuguese V
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-61)
Love Poems 11
She Tells Her Love by Robert Ranke Graves
Love Poems 12
It's all I have to bring to-day by Emily Dickinson
Love Poems 13
I Never Lost As Much by Emily Dickinson
Love Poems 14
Heart, We Will Forget Him by Emily Dickinson
Love Poems 15
O Mistress Mine by William Shakespeare
Love Poems 16
The Rose in the Deeps of his Heart by William Butler Yeats
Love Poems 17
Love by Robert Browning
Love Poems 18
My Pretty Rose Tree by William Blake
Love Poems 19
I Should Not Dare by Emily Dickinson
Love Poems 20
One Day I Wrote Her Name by Edmund Spenser
Love Poems 21
Tell me not, Sweet, by Richard Lovelace
Love Poems 22
The Dream by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Love Poems 23
The Dream by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Love Poems 24
Hope is a Thing With Feathers by Emily Dickinson
Love Poems 25
We Are Seven by William Wordsworth
Love Poems 26
Mag by Carl Sandburg
Love Poems 27
Ebb by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Love Poems 28
I Sing by Emily Dickinson
Love Poems 29
For Each Ecstatic Instant by Emily Dickinson
Love Poems 30
Love Not Me by John Wilbye
Love Poems 31
Mild Is The Parting Year by Walter Savage Landor