Poetical Works with a Memoir of Her Life and Character (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: But at the thought of such iniquity, And so much wretchedness, had shuddering wept, Beheld it now without a passing pang; And careless went to her own babes again? So much had the best feelings of her heart Been sear'd by dwelling 'midst a land of slaves. THE SUGAR-PLUMS. No, no, pretty sugar-plums! stay where you are! Though my grandmother sent you to me from so far; You look very nice, you would taste very sweet, And I love you right well, yet not one will I eat. For the poor slaves have labour'd, far down in the south, To make you so sweet and so nice for my mouth; But I want no slaves toiling for me in the sun, Driven on with the whip, till the long day is done. Perhaps some poor slave child, that hoed up the ground, Round the cane in whose rich juice your sweetness was found, Was flogg'd, till his mother cried sadly to see, And I 'm sure I want nobody beaten for me. So grandma, I thank you for being so kind, But your present, to-day, is not much to my mind; Though I love you so dearly, I choose not to eat Even what you have sent me by slavery made sweet. Thus said little Fanny, and skipp'd off to play, Leaving all her nice sugar-plums just where they lay, As merry as if they had gone in her mouth, And she had not cared for the slaves of the south. OH PRESS ME NOT TO TASTE AGAIN. Oh press me not to taste again Of those luxurious banquet sweets ! Or hide from view the dark red stain, That still my shuddering vision meets. Away ! 't is loathsome ! bear me hence! I cannot feed on human sighs, Or feast with sweets my palate's sense, While blood is 'neath the fair disguise. No, never let me taste again Of aught beside the coarsest fare, Far rather, than my conscience stain, With the polluted luxuries there. ...