Poem: “Formerly A Slave” by Herman Melville

Poems From Battle Pieces

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American Literature – American Poetry – Herman Melville – Poems by Herman Melville – Poems From Battle Pieces
< < < A Grave near Petersburg, Virginia
The Apparition > > >

Formerly A Slave

An idealized Portrait, by E. Vedder, in the Spring Exhibition of the National Academy, 1865

The sufferance of her race is shown,
    And retrospect of life,
Which now too late deliverance dawns upon;
    Yet is she not at strife.

Her children’s children they shall know
    The good withheld from her;
And so her reverie takes prophetic cheer—
    In spirit she sees the stir.

Far down the depth of thousand years,
    And marks the revel shine;
Her dusky face is lit with sober light,
    Sibylline, yet benign.

< < < A Grave near Petersburg, Virginia
The Apparition > > >

American Literature – American Poetry – Herman Melville – Poems by Herman Melville – Poems From Battle Pieces

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Poems From Battle Pieces

Formerly A Slave

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