The Norton Anthology of English literature. Volume 2

Invoke thy dread perfection? Have the broad eyelids of the morn beheld thee? Or does the beamy shoulder of Orion

105 Support thy throne? O look with pity down On erring, guilty man! not in thy names Of terror clad; not with those thunders armed That conscious Sinai felt, when fear appalled The scattered tribes;5�thou hast a gentler voice,

no" That whispers comfort to the swelling heart, Abashed, yet longing to behold her Maker.

But now my soul, unused to stretch her powers In flight so daring, drops her weary wing, And seeks again the known accustomed spot,

115 Drest up with sun, and shade, and lawns, and streams, A mansion fair, and spacious for its guest, And full replete with wonders. Let me here, Content and grateful, wait the appointed time, And ripen for the skies: the hour will come

120 When all these splendours bursting on my sight Shall stand unveiled, and to my ravished sense Unlock the glories of the world unknown.

1773

Epistle to William Wilberforce, Esq. on the Rejection of the Bill for Abolishing the Slave Trade1

Cease, Wilberforce, to urge thy generous aim! Thy Country knows the sin, and stands the shame! The Preacher, Poet, Senator in vain Has rattled in her sight the Negro's chain;

5 With his deep groans assail'd her startled ear, And rent the veil that hid his constant tear; Forc'd her averted eyes his stripes to scan, Beneath the bloody scourge laid bare the man, Claim'd Pity's tear, urg'd Conscience' strong control,

10 And flash'd conviction on her shrinking soul. The Muse too, soon awak'd, with ready tongue At Mercy's shrine applausive0 paeans rung; approving And Freedom's eager sons, in vain foretold A new Astrean reign,� an age of gold: reign of justice

15 She knows and she persists�Still Afric bleeds, Uncheck'd, the human traffic still proceeds; She stamps her infamy to future time,

5. When God came down to deliver the Ten Commandments "there were thunders and lightnings . . . so that all the people . . . trembled" (Exodus 19.16). 1. On April 18, 1791, the politician and humanitarian Wilberforce (1759�1833) presented a motion in the House of Commons to abolish the slave trade. The motion was rejected a day later by a vote of 163 to 88. Sixteen years passed before the trade was outlawed in the British West Indies (1807), and another twenty-six before it was abolished in the rest of the British Empire (1833).

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E PISTLE TO W ILLIAM W ILBERFORCE, E SQ. / 3 3 And on her harden'd forehead seals the crime. In vain, to thy white standard gathering round, 20 Wit, Worth, and Parts and Eloquence are found: In vain, to push to birth thy great design, Contending chiefs, and hostile virtues join; All, from conflicting ranks, of power possest To rouse, to melt, or to inform the breast. 25 Where seasoned tools of Avarice prevail, A Nation's eloquence, combined, must fail: Each flimsy sophistry by turns they try; The plausive0 argument, the daring lie, specious The artful gloss, that moral sense confounds,

30 Th' acknowledged thirst of gain that honour wounds: Bane of ingenuous minds, th' unfeeling sneer, Which, sudden, turns to stone the falling tear: They search assiduous, with inverted skill, For forms of wrong, and precedents of ill;

35 With impious mockery west the sacred page, And glean up crimes from each remoter age: Wrung Nature's tortures, shuddering, while you tell, From scoffing fiends bursts forth the laugh of hell; In Britain's senate, Misery's pangs give birth

40 To jests unseemly, and to horrid mirth� Forbear!�thy virtues but provoke our doom, And swell th' account of vengeance yet to come; For, not unmark'd in Heaven's impartial plan, Shall man, proud worm, contemn his fellow-man?

45 And injur'd Afric, by herself redrest, Darts her own serpents at her Tyrant's breast. Each vice, to minds deprav'd by bondage known, With sure contagion fastens on his own; In sickly languors melts his nerveless frame,

50 And blows to rage impetuous Passion's flame: Fermenting swift, the fiery venom gains The milky innocence of infant veins; There swells the stubborn will, damps learning's fire, The whirlwind wakes of uncontrol'd desire,

55 Sears the young heart to images of woe, And blasts the buds of Virtue as they blow.0 bloom

Lo! where reclin'd, pale Beauty courts the breeze, Diffus'd on sofas of voluptuous ease; With anxious awe, her menial train around,

60 Catch her faint whispers of half-utter'd sound; See her, in monstrous fellowship, unite At once the Scythian, and the Sybarite;2 Blending repugnant vices, misallied, Which frugal nature purpos'd to divide;

65 See her, with indolence to fierceness join'd, Of body delicate, infirm of mind, With languid tones imperious mandates urge; With arm recumbent wield the household scourge;

2. I.e., the contraries of pastoral wildness and effeminate voluptuousness.

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34 / ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD

And with unruffled mien, and placid sounds, 70 Contriving torture, and inflicting wounds.