| |
| SLAVE of the dark and dirty mine! | |
| What vanity has brought thee here? | |
| How can I love to see thee shine | |
| So bright, whom I have bought so dear? | |
| The tent-ropes flapping lone I hear | 5 |
| For twilight converse, arm in arm, | |
| The jackal’s shriek bursts on mine ear | |
| When mirth and music wont to charm. | |
| |
| By Clerical’s dark, wandering streams, | |
| Where cane-tufts shadow all the wild, | 10 |
| Sweet visions haunt my waking dreams, | |
| Of Teviot loved while still a child, | |
| Of castled rock, stupendous piled | |
| By Esk or Eden’s classic wave, | |
| Where loves of youth and friendship smiled, | 15 |
| Uncursed by thee, vile, yellow slave! | |
| |
| Fade, day-dreams sweet, from memory fade! | |
| The perished bliss of youth’s first prime, | |
| That once so bright on fancy played, | |
| Revives no more in after-time: | 20 |
| Far from my sacred natal clime, | |
| I haste to an untimely grave; | |
| The daring thoughts that soared sublime | |
| Are sunk in Ocean’s Southern wave. | |
| |
| Slave of the mine! thy yellow light | 25 |
| Gleams baneful as the tomb-fire drear; | |
| A gentle vision comes by night | |
| My lonely widow’s heart to cheer: | |
| Her eyes are dim with many a tear, | |
| That once were guiding-stars to mine; | 30 |
| Her fond heart throbs with many a fear! | |
| I cannot bear to see thee shine. | |
| |
| For thee, for thee, vile, yellow slave, | |
| I left a heart that loved me true, | |
| I crossed the tedious ocean wave, | 35 |
| To roam in climes unkind and new. | |
| The cold wind of the stranger blew | |
| Chill on my withered heart; the grave | |
| Dark and untimely met my view,— | |
| And all for thee, vile, yellow slave! | 40 |
| |
| Ha! com’st thou now so late to mock | |
| A wanderer’s banished heart forlorn, | |
| Now that his frame the lightning-shock | |
| Of sun-rays tipped with death has borne | |
| From love? from friendships, country torn, | 45 |
| To memory’s fond regrets the prey? | |
| Vile slave, thy yellow dross I scorn! | |
| Go mix thee with thy kindred clay! | |
| |
