Hope, by Dinah Ball
Written after first hearing of the formation of Ladies' Anti-Slavery Associations.
Slavery! silent hopeless anguish--
British souls have felt thy care:
Yet their firmest efforts languish
Into all the slave's despair.
Is there hope?--The thought were glory,
Piercing through a darksome cave:
Statesmen, poets, tell thy story,
Yet is found no hand to save.
Is there hope? Yes, if exerted,
One untried, resistless power,
Modest, quiet, unasserted,
Patient through the darkest hour.
Sisters:--ye whose tears have glistened
At the tale of Afric's woe;
Let the sympathy that listened
All its energy bestow.
Gentle hands by thousands aiding,
Eloquence, though soft as lutes,
By ten thousand lips persuading,
Can secure your high pursuits.
Shall a gust of blessings reach us,
Poured from grateful negro-tongues,
While their generous virtues teach us
Negroes can forget their wrongs?
Yes, the western breeze shall bear it-
Yes, the triumph shall be true!
Sister-Britons, ye shall share it,--
Heaven reserves the bliss for you!
D. Ball