On The Bill Which Was Passed In England For Regulating The Slave-trade Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AABCDDEE FFGGHHIIJJKKLLMMNNOO HHPPNNQQRRSSEEAATTNN UUVVWWXXYYKKZZIINNLL A2B2C2C2NND2D2E2E2NN F2F2NNMMG2G2H2H2NNH2 H2LLI2I2NNJ2J2UUE2E2 NNNNMMH2H2K2K2LLNNL2 L2C2C2H2H2LLUUE2E2M2 M2N2N2H2H2J2J2LLNNO2 O2CB H2H2P2Q2NNJ2J2NNAAH2 H2MMR2R2NNH2H2H2H2NN MMH2H2H2H2C2C2NNMMS2 S2C2C2OOTTH2H2NNJ2J2 LLH2H2MMJ2J2I2I2H2H2 C2C2NNH2H2| The hollow winds of night no more | A |
| In wild unequal cadence pour | A |
| On musing fancy's wakeful ear | B |
| The groan of agony severe | C |
| From yon dark vessel which contains | D |
| The wretch new bound in hopeless chains | D |
| Whose soul with keener anguish bleeds | E |
| As AFRIC'S less'ning shore recedes | E |
| - | |
| No more where Ocean's unseen bound | F |
| Leaves a drear world of waters round | F |
| Between the howling gust shall rise | G |
| The stifled captive's latest sighs | G |
| No more shall suffocating death | H |
| Seize the pent victim's sinking breath | H |
| The pang of that convulsive hour | I |
| Reproaching man's insatiate power | I |
| Man who to AFRIC'S shore has past | J |
| Relentless as the annual blast | J |
| That sweeps the Western Isles and flings | K |
| Destruction from its furious wings | K |
| And woman she too weak to bear | L |
| The galling chain the tainted air | L |
| Of mind too feeble to sustain | M |
| The vast accumulated pain | M |
| No more in desperation wild | N |
| Shall madly strain her gasping child | N |
| With all the mother at her soul | O |
| With eyes where tears have ceas'd to roll | O |
| Shall catch the livid infant's breath | H |
| Then sink in agonizing death | H |
| BRITAIN the noble blest decree | P |
| That soothes despair is fram'd by thee | P |
| Thy powerful arm has interpos'd | N |
| And one dire scene for ever clos'd | N |
| Its horror shall no more belong | Q |
| To that foul drama deep with wrong | Q |
| O first of EUROPE'S polish'd lands | R |
| To ease the captive's iron bands | R |
| Long as thy glorious annals shine | S |
| This proud distinction shall be thine | S |
| Not first alone when valour leads | E |
| To rush on danger's noblest deeds | E |
| When mercy calls thee to explore | A |
| A gloomy path untrod before | A |
| Thy ardent spirit springs to heal | T |
| And greatly gen'rous dares to feel | T |
| Valour is like the meteor's light | N |
| Whose partial flash leaves deeper night | N |
| While Mercy like the lunar ray | U |
| Gilds the thick shade with softer day | U |
| Blest deed that met consenting minds | V |
| In all but those whom av'rice binds | V |
| Who creep in interest's crooked ways | W |
| Nor ever pass her narrow maze | W |
| Or those whom hard indiff'rence steels | X |
| To every pang another feels | X |
| For them has fortune round their bowers | Y |
| Twin'd partial nymph her lavish flowers | Y |
| For them from unsunn'd caves she brings | K |
| Her summer ice for them she springs | K |
| To climes where hotter suns produce | Z |
| The richer fruit's delicious juice | Z |
| While they whom wasted blessings tire | I |
| Nor leave one want to feed desire | I |
| With cool insulting ease demand | N |
| Why for yon hopeless captive band | N |
| Is ask'd to mitigate despair | L |
| The mercy of the common air | L |
| - | |
| The boon of larger space to breathe | A2 |
| While coop'd that hollow deck beneath | B2 |
| A lengthen'd plank on which to throw | C2 |
| Their shackled limbs while fiercely glow | C2 |
| The beams direct that on each head | N |
| The fury of contagion shed | N |
| And dare presumptuous guilty man | D2 |
| Load with offence his fleeting span | D2 |
| Deform creation with the gloom | E2 |
| Of crimes that blot its cheerful bloom | E2 |
| Darken a work so perfect made | N |
| And cast the universe in shade | N |
| Alas to AFRIC'S fetter'd race | F2 |
| Creation wears no form of grace | F2 |
| To them earth's pleasant vales are found | N |
| A blasted waste a sterile bound | N |
| Where the poor wand'rer must sustain | M |
| The load of unremitted pain | M |
| A region in whose ample scope | G2 |
| His eye discerns no gleam of hope | G2 |
| Where thought no kind asylum knows | H2 |
| On which its anguish may repose | H2 |
| But death that to the ravag'd breast | N |
| Comes not in shapes of terror drest | N |
| Points to green hills where freedom roves | H2 |
| And minds renew their former loves | H2 |
| Or hov'ring in the troubled air | L |
| Hangs the fierce spectre of Despair | L |
| Whose soul abhors the gift of life | I2 |
| Who stedfast grasps the reeking knife | I2 |
| Bids the charg'd heart in torrents bleed | N |
| And smiles in frenzy at the deed | N |
| Ye noble minds who o'er a sky | J2 |
| Where clouds are roll'd and tempests fly | J2 |
| Have bid the lambent lustre play | U |
| Of one pure lovely azure ray | U |
| O far diffuse its op'ning bloom | E2 |
| And the wide Hemisphere illume | E2 |
| Ye who one bitter drop have drain'd | N |
| From slav'ry's cup with horror stain'd | N |
| O let no fatal dregs be found | N |
| But dash her chalice on the ground | N |
| While still she links her impious chain | M |
| And calculates the price of pain | M |
| Weighs agony in sordid scales | H2 |
| And marks if death or life prevails | H2 |
| Decides how near the mangling scourge | K2 |
| May to the grave its victim urge | K2 |
| Yet for awhile with prudent care | L |
| The half worn wretch if useful spare | L |
| And speculates with skill refin'd | N |
| How deep a wound will stab the mind | N |
| How far the spirit can endure | L2 |
| Calamity that hopes no cure | L2 |
| Ye who can selfish cares forego | C2 |
| To pity those which others know | C2 |
| As light that from its centre strays | H2 |
| To glad all nature with its rays | H2 |
| O ease the pangs ye stoop to share | L |
| And rescue millions from despair | L |
| For you while morn in graces gay | U |
| Wakes the fresh bloom of op'ning day | U |
| Gilds with her purple light your dome | E2 |
| Renewing all the joys of home | E2 |
| Of that dear shed which first ye knew | M2 |
| Where first the sweet affections grew | M2 |
| Whose charm alike the heart can draw | N2 |
| If form'd of marble or of straw | N2 |
| Whether the voice of pleasure calls | H2 |
| And gladness echoes through its walls | H2 |
| Or to its hallow'd roof we fly | J2 |
| With those we love to pour the sigh | J2 |
| The load of mingled pain to bear | L |
| And soften every pang we share | L |
| Ah think how desolate his state | N |
| How he the cheerful light must hate | N |
| Whom sever'd from his native soil | O2 |
| The morning wakes to fruitless toil | O2 |
| To labours hope shall never cheer | C |
| Or fond domestic joy endear | B |
| - | |
| Poor wretch on whose despairing eyes | H2 |
| His cherish'd home shall never rise | H2 |
| Condemn'd severe extreme to live | P2 |
| When all is fled that life can give | Q2 |
| And ah the blessings valued most | N |
| By human minds are blessings lost | N |
| Unlike the objects of the eye | J2 |
| Enlarging as we bring them nigh | J2 |
| Our joys at distance strike the breast | N |
| And seem diminish'd when possest | N |
| Who from his far divided shore | A |
| The half expiring captive bore | A |
| Those whom the traffic of their race | H2 |
| Has robb'd of every human grace | H2 |
| Whose harden'd souls no more retain | M |
| Impressions nature stamp'd in vain | M |
| As streams that once the landscape gave | R2 |
| Reflected on the trembling wave | R2 |
| Their substance change when lock'd in frost | N |
| And rest in dead contraction lost | N |
| Who view unmoved the look that tells | H2 |
| The pang that in the bosom dwells | H2 |
| Heed not the nerves that terror shakes | H2 |
| The heart convulsive anguish breaks | H2 |
| The shriek that would their crimes upbraid | N |
| But deem despair a part of trade | N |
| Such only for detested gain | M |
| The barb'rous commerce would maintain | M |
| The gen'rous sailor he who dares | H2 |
| All forms of danger while he bears | H2 |
| The British flag o'er sultry seas | H2 |
| And spreads it on the Polar breeze | H2 |
| He to whose guardian arm we owe | C2 |
| Each blessing that the happy know | C2 |
| Whatever charms the soften'd heart | N |
| Each cultur'd grace each finer art | N |
| E'en thine most lovely of the train | M |
| Sweet Poetry thy heav'n taught strain | M |
| His breast where nobler passions burn | S2 |
| In honest poverty would spurn | S2 |
| The wealth oppression can bestow | C2 |
| And scorn to wound a fetter'd foe | C2 |
| True courage in the unconquered soul | O |
| Yields to Compassion's mild control | O |
| As the resisting frame of steel | T |
| The magnet's secret force can feel | T |
| When borne at length to Western lands | H2 |
| Chain'd on the beach the captive stands | H2 |
| Where Man dire merchandize is sold | N |
| And barter'd life is paid for gold | N |
| In mute affliction see him try | J2 |
| To read his new possessor's eye | J2 |
| If one blest glance of mercy there | L |
| One half form'd tear may check despair | L |
| Ah if that eye with sorrow sees | H2 |
| His languid look his quiv'ring knees | H2 |
| Those limbs which scarce their load sustain | M |
| That form consum'd in wasting pain | M |
| Such sorrow fills his ruthless eye | J2 |
| Who sees the lamb he doom'd to die | J2 |
| In pining sickness yield his life | I2 |
| And thus elude the sharpen'd knife | I2 |
| Or if where savage habit steels | H2 |
| The vulgar mind one bosom feels | H2 |
| The sacred claim of helpless woe | C2 |
| If pity in that soil can grow | C2 |
| Yet why on one poor chance must rest | N |
| The int'rest of a kindred breast | N |
| Why yield to passion's wayward laws | H2 |
| Humanity's devoted caus | H2 |
Helen Maria Williams
(1)
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About On The Bill Which Was Passed In England For Regulating The Slave-trade
On The Bill Which Was Passed In England For Regulating The Slave-trade is a poem by Helen Maria Williams. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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