Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, IA [i.e. Ind.]) 1839-1854, 1847-01-26
POET Y
From the National Era.
RANDOLPH OF ROANOKE.

RANDOLPH OF ROANOKE.
BT JOHN O. WHITTIER.
Nh Mother Earth! upon thy lap
Thy weary ones receiving,
Aud Ger them, silent as a dream.
Thy grassy mantle weaving;
Fold softly in thy long embrace
That heart worn aud broken,
Aud cool its pulse of fire beneath
Thy shadows old and oakcn.
Gin, on, from him the bitter word
And serpent hiss OF scornln2i
Nor let the storms of yesterday
Disturb this quiet morning:
Breathe over him forgetfulness
OF all save deeds OF Kindness.
And, save TO smiles OF grateful eyes,
Press down his lids III blindness.
There, where with living car and eye
He heard Potomac 5 flowing,
And, through his tall ancestral trees.
Saw Autum's sunset glowing,
He sleeps-stiIi looking to the West,
Beneath tile the dark WOO shadow,
As if he still would the sun
Sink down on wave and meadow.
Bard, Sage, and Tribune.-in himself
All moods Of mind contrasting
The tenderest wall of human W.,
The scorn like lightning blasting;
The pathos which from rival eyes
Unwilling tears could summon;
The SINGING tauu,, the fiery burst
OF hatred scarcely human!
Mirth, sparkling like diamond showed,
From lips Of long sadness,
Clear picturings Of majestic thought
Upon ground of madness:
And over all Romance aud Song
classic beauty throwing;
And laurcled Clio at his sIGc
Her storled pages showing.
All parties feared him: each in turn
Beheld its schemes dis, ointed,
As right or left his fatal glance
And spectral finger pointed.
Sworn foe Of Can't he smote 1t down
With trenchant wit unsparing,
And, hooking. rent with ruthless hand
The robe Pretcnce wearing.
Too honest or too proud to frign
love he never cherished.
Beyond Virginia's border line
His patr!otlsIn perishcd:
While others hailed in distant skies
Our Eagles dur<y pinion,
He only the mountain bird
Stoop Ger his old dominion!
Still through each change Of fortune strange,
Racked nerve, and brain all burning,
His loving faith III mothcrland
Knew never shade of turning;
By Briains lakes, by Nevas wave,
Whatever SIX Ger him,
He heard her rivers rushing sound,
Her blue peaks rose before hun.
He held his slaves: vet made withal
No false and vain prctences,
Nor paid IA lying priest to seek
For scrpturai dcfenccs.
His harshest words of proud rcbuke,
His bittercst taunt and scorung,
Fell hrelike on the Northern brow
That be mt to him III fdwnIug.
He held his slaves: yet kept the Willis
His reverence for The Human;
In the dark vassais Of his viii
He saw bu, Nan and Woman.
No hunter of Goi's outraged poor
His Roanoke valley entercd;
No trader III the souls Of men
Across his threshold ventured.
And when the old aud wcarci man
Laid down for his last sleeping,
And al his side a slave more,
Hi, brother man stool weeping,
His latest thought, his latest breath,
To Freedoms duty giving,
With failing tongue and trembling hand
The dying blest the living.
Oh. never bore his ancient State
truer or Drawer,
None trampling with calmer scorn
On foreign hate or favor;
He knew her faults, vet never stopped
HIS proud and manly feeling
To poor excuses of the wrong
Or meanness of conceafIng.
But none behold with clearer eve
The plague spot ocr her spreading.
None heard more sure the steps of Doom
Along her future treading
For her for himself he spake,
When. his gnunt frame upbr1cing.
He traced with dying hand ..REMoRsE'f
And persisted IN the tracing.
As from the grave whore Henry sleeps,
From Vernon's weeping willow,
And from the grassy pail which hides
The sage of Monticello,
So from the leaf-strown burial stone
or RanGolph's iowly dwelling,
Virginia, DER thy land of slaves
A warning ,oicc is swelling.
And hark. from thy deserted fields
Are saiGer warnings spoken,
From qucnchcd hcartiis where thy cxiled sons
Their households gods have broken,
The Curse is on thet-wolvcs for men,
And hrlars for corn sheaves giving.
Oh. more than all thy dead renown
Were now one hero living!
andolph had a hearty hatred of slave traders, ana
treated some OF them quite roughly who venture
apen his 'chattels PERSONAL
ee the remarkable statement of DR.. Parish, b
al attendant.
q q, n, H. l. a ~ H. n II u