“Formerly a Slave.”

The sufferance of her race is shown,

And retrospect of life,

Which now too late deliverance dawns upon;

Yet is she not at strife.

Her children's children they shall know

The good withheld from her;

And so her reverie takes prophetic cheer —

In spirit she sees the stir

Far down the depth of thousand years,

And marks the revel shine;

Her dusky face is lit with sober light,

Sibylline, yet benign.