An 1883 volume of mixed evangelical and antislavery poems, by African American abolitionist Alfred Gibbs Campbell. Digitized by the Antislavery Literature Project.
POEMS
BY
ALFRED GIBBS CAMPBELL
---------
NEWARK, N. J.:
ADVERTISER PRINTING HOUSE,
1883.
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COPYRIGHTED ACCORDING TO LAW BY
ALFRED GIBBS CAMPBELL,
IN THE YEAR 1883.
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PREFACE
My printer says that every book ought to have a preface, and he has called upon me for one for this. I will therefore simply say that, acting upon the suggestion of personal friends and in accordance with my own inclination, I have here gathered in a volume, (rather promiscuously it must be confessed,) various pieces in verse which I have written during the past thirty years or so. For want of a more distinctive name, I call them “Poems,” which possibly, in a minor sense, they may be. I claim for them no literary excellence. If in them there is anything worthy of living, it will live.
The Anti-slavery pieces will show the author’s position in that great “moral warfare,” which resulted in the overthrow of the giant crime
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against human nature and its Divine Author. They were published, at the time they were written, in the papers devoted to that subject: and but few of the pieces in the book are now printed for the first time.
Should their appearance in this form afford pleasure to my friends, I shall be gratified.
A. GIBBS CAMPBELL
Newark, N. J.
April 7th, 1883.
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CONTENTS
On the Deep, ------------------------------ 1
Caleb’s Vision, ---------------------------- 5
The Divine Mission, ------------------------12
Ode to Death, ----------------------------- 16
A Paraphrase, ----------------------------- 18
To a Young Mother, ----------------------- 20
Invocation, --------------------------------- 23
Musings, ----------------------------------- 24
Questionings, ------------------------------- 25
My Mother’s Grave, ------------------------ 27
Life’s Pilgrimage, ---------------------------- 29
I Would Be Free, ----------------------------32
Xerxes, ------------------------------------- 34
Cry “Infidel,” -------------------------------- 35
A Land Above Us, -------------------------- 37
Death’s Death, ------------------------------ 39
Drifting, -------------------------------------- 40
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To My Absent Wife, -------------------------- 41
Advent, --------------------------------------- 43
National Song, -------------------------------- 45
Redeemed, ------------------------------------ 47
Go Ahead, ------------------------------------- 49
Abraham Lincoln, -------------------------------51
Album Dedication, ------------------------------54
Album Pieces, ----------------------------------55, 57, 59
Of Death and Life, ------------------------------ 60
Invitation to the Clergy, -------------------------- 63
Warning, ---------------------------------------- 65
The Doom of Slavery, --------------------------- 67
The Virginian’s Appeal, -------------------------- 70
Slaves’ Prayer, ---------------------------------- 72
In Tyrannos, ------------------------------------- 75
Liberty, ------------------------------------------ 78
July 4th, 1855, ----------------------------------- 80
July 4th, 1857, ----------------------------------- 83
Old John Brown, --------------------------------- 85
A Battle-Cry, ------------------------------------- 87
Waiting for Day, ---------------------------------- 89
Victory, -------------------------------------------93
In Memoriam—Abbie Hutchinson, ---------------- 94
In Memoriam—Rev. F. E. Butler, ----------------- 96
Consolatory, -------------------------------------- 98
Ships at Sea, -------------------------------------- 100
Prayer for Temperance Meeting, ------------------- 101
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God Shall be All in All, ----------------------------- 103
Jesus, Give Me of Thy Spirit, ----------------------- 105
Morning Hymn, ------------------------------------- 107
Blessed Jesus, Who for Me, ------------------------ 109
God is Love, ---------------------------------------- 111
Inscription on a Child’s Tombstone, ----------------- 112
I Will Trust the Crucified, ---------------------------- 113
If Thou, Dear Lord, Art Mine, ----------------------- 115
Oft as I Hear the Story, -------------------------------117
New Year’s Musings, ---------------------------------119
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ON THE DEEP.
Hard at their oars the fishers toiled,
But adverse winds their labors foiled;
Torn into shreds, their useless sail,
Streamed out upon the angry gale;
No nearer drew their destined port;
Their bark, the tempest’s mock and sport,
High on the waves was wildly tossed,
Till every human hope seemed lost.
Yet strained their vision through the night
To catch some gleam of coming light;
When, lo! to their astonished eyes
What vision of affright doth rise?
A form of self-poised majesty
Walking upon the stormy sea.
In vain the billows round him rise,
The wind in vain its fury tries;
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He heeds them not, but through the dark
Walks calmly toward the laboring bark.
“No mortal thus the waves can thread!
“It is a spirit from the dead!
“Some dreadful harbinger of doom
“Burst from the darkness of the tomb.”
As thus they spake with bated breath,
Dire fancies of impending death
Stole o’er their souls in wild array,
And overwhelmed them with dismay.
Their very heart’s blood felt a chill
Which brake the link twixt act and will;
They stood as stone-carved statues still.
Nor had they power to ask his name
As nearer now the stranger came;
But accents which they knew full well,
Dissolved at once the fearful spell;
A voice in softest music said,
“Lo! it is I! be not afraid!”
Then all their terror fled apace;
Joy tinted each fear-whitened face;
Their hearts, which erst had ceased to beat,
Pulsated with a rapture sweet;
The Master’s voice a holy calm
Shed on their souls, like healing balm.
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The raging winds, the surging sea,
Acknowledged His supremacy;
(He could command what He had made,)
And the mad turbulence was stayed.
No more the sailors toil in vain;
His will, who quelled the furious gale,
Supplies the place of oars and sail,
And straight their destined port they gain.
So when, upon Life’s changeful sea,
Winds howl and waves rise furiously,
If my lone bark shall, tempest driven,
Strive vainly toward the port of Heaven;
Should clouds and darkness intervene
My soul and God’s pure light between,
And neither sun nor star shall be seen;
Should hope and joy afar be fled,
And my sad soul, disquieted,
Grope darkly for some ray of light
To guide it through the stormy light;
Then, Jesus, Master, let my eyes
Behold Thy glorious form arise,
With such a mien, in such a guise,
That I my Lord may recognize!
Let Thy dear voice upon my ear
Fall with its words of holy cheer!
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Be Thou my fellow-voyager!
Then shall the wild winds sink to sleep
And placid grow the raging deep;
Darkness and storm shall quickly fly,
And leave unclouded all my sky;
My soul, no longer tempest-driven,
Shall find in Thee its joy, its Heaven!
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CALEB’S VISION
Caleb went, as was his custom
On a quiet Sunday morn,
To the house of prayer and worship,
Thither by devotion borne.
With his heart to Heaven uplifted,
All his soul engaged in prayer,
Caleb in his inmost being
Felt God’s gracious presence there.
Rose the organ’s diapason,
Deep, majestical and wild,
And the singers sang a chorus
To the praise of Mary’s child.
Soon the song to silence melted,
Died the organ-tones away,
And the pastor in the pulpit
Said in low voice, “Let us pray!”
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In most earnest supplication
Then the good man’s voice uprose,
For a world in darkness lying,
For its wickedness and woes,
All by one man’s sin engendered,
All by Adam’s fatal fall,
Which, the pastor said, hath all men
Wrapped within its fearful pall.
When the pastor ceased his praying,
In the pulpit stood up one
Whose high brow with care was furrowed,
Darkened by an Orient sun,
And he told, in strains pathetic,
Of a distant eastern clime,
Where, by superstition fettered,
Sunk in ignorance and crime,
All the people worshiped idols,
Gods which their own hands had made,
Vainly thinking, in their blindness,
Earth-born gods could give them aid.
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And as Caleb heard the story
All his heart within him burned,
And his soul with deep compassion
For that wretched people yearned.
Now before his spirit’s vision
These sad scenes began to glide:
Mothers their own children casting
Headlong ’neath the rolling tide
Of the Ganges, monster haunted,
Counting love maternal naught;
Nature’s holiest instincts vanquished
By the faith which they are taught.
Multitudes, self-immolating,
Deeming their salvation bought
By a death beneath the pond’rous
Wheels of gory Juggernaut.
On the funeral-pyre, the widow,
Lying down beside the dead,
While the red flames, hot and savage,
Leap in fury overhead.
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Age defenceless, left to perish
On the alter-river’s bank,
Mid dark vapors thence uprising,
With foul, poisonous odors rank;
No kind friend to sit beside them,
Or to close the glazing eye;
Naught save the cold stars above them,
Keeping watch, as thus they die.
Stifled cry of drowning infant,
Bleeding victim’s dying groan,
Piercing shriek of burning widow,
Age’s low expiring moan,
With a strange and untold horror
All his spirit overcast,
As the dreadful panorama
Rolled in sad distinctness past.
“Neither gold nor silver have I,
But myself to them I give;
I will bear to them the Gospel,
That they, hearing it, may live.”
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Such was Caleb’s earnest answer
To the preacher’s solemn call
On the worshippers of Him who
Said, “My gospel preach to all.”
Homeward Caleb went, still burning
With a new and holy fire;
The salvation of the heathen
His most ardent, sole desire.
Having first himself committed
To the Great All-Father’s care,
And his consecration offered,
All his purposes laid bare,
On his peaceful coach lay Caleb,
In a quiet slumber bound,
When had Night her jeweled curtain
Drawn the weary earth around;
And a vision was vouchsafed him;
Stood an angel by his bed,
Clothed in robes of spotless beauty,
Radiance streaming from his head;
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And he spake in accents softer
Than the south wind’s gentlest sigh,
“Fear not, Caleb, I am sent thee
From the Lord who rules on High,
“Sent to say thy consecration
And thy vows have all been heard;
He doth graciously accept them,
In His book they’re registered.
“Go, on God’s own strength relying,
Raise Immanuel’s standard high,
Teach the poor, benighted millions
How to live and how to die.
“Tell them of God’s great compassion;
Of His tender heart which yearns
Like a mother’s o’er her children;
Of His love which brightly burns
“With a steady flame, undying,
With an energy divine,
Seeking all the lost and ruined,
Who in sin and misery pine.
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“Tell them of His incarnation,
Of His earthly life and loss,
How for them He greatly suffered,
How for them He bore the cross.
“Be thou faithful to the message,
Shrink not, fear not, though thou be
Often weary of thy life-work,
Think what Christ hath done for thee.
“In His strength go forward boldly,
Bear the banner of the Cross,
And its victories shall surely
Compensate thy every loss.
“And thy soul’s most ardent wished
Shall be more than satisfied,
In the hosts who heed thy message
And accept the Crucified.
“And when thou thy task hast finished,
When thy earthly work is o’er,
Heaven its doors shall open to thee,—
Thine its joys for evermore!”
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THE DIVINE MISSION.
When on the earth had settled moral night,
And darkness reigned where once shone Sinai’s light;
When superstitious rites usurped the place
Where beamed Religion once with holy grace;
When Justice, Truth and Mercy far had fled
From Church and State, and hollow forms instead—
Tithings of “anise, mint and cummin,” made
For sanctimonious priests a thriving trade,
Who, like our modern priests, gain-seeking men,
God’s holy temple made a robbers’ den;—
At such a time, long centuries ago,
From heaven’s high mansions to the earth below
An angel band, on gladsome errand bound,
Sped to the plains where, seated on the ground,
The humble shepherds through the solemn night
Watched their beloved flocks, and gathered pure delight
And holy wisdom, which each glowing star
Rained on them with its radiance from afar.
Around the shepherds shone celestial light,
(Each gem eclipsing in the crown of night,)
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Making them quake with apprehensive dread,
But momentary, for God’s angel said,
“Fear not, I bring glad tidings unto all
“People who dwell on this terrestrial ball.”
Then Heaven’s high dome with sounds harmonic rang
As the angelic host in concert sang
“Glory to God! Good-will and peace on earth!”
Most fitting song to usher in the birth
Of Heaven’s divinest Son, whose mission grand
Eternal Love had from eternal planned!
* * * * * * *
Lo! in a manger where the oxen fed,
The Son of God made His first lowly bed;
He who, on high, with glory erst was crowned,
No prouder birth-place than a stable found.
As in our time the North-star’s steady ray
Guides weary pilgrims on their toilsome way
From bondage worse than that of Pharaoh’s reign,
So there appeared, among the shining train,
One flaming star which like a beacon shone,
And from the East-land led the sages on,
Who, finding Jesus, worshiped him, and rolled
Full at His feet their gifts of precious gold,
And incense-breathing gums, whose odors rare
Symboled the fragrance of their praise and prayer.
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When unto manhood had the Christ-child grown,
Sunlike, but spotless, His example shone,
Teaching the world great truths which long had been
Hid by traditions false and priestly din.
He trampled on the vain and hollow rites
Practices by vainer, hollower hypocrites,
Who hoped by them to bring the heavens in debt,
Or blind the omniscient eye of God, while yet
They daily added to their ill-got store
By stealing bread from God’s afflicted poor,
And still contrived how they might still steal more!
The poor, the blind, the outcast and the slave,
The victims of the rich, proud Pharisee,
These were the sharers of His sympathy,
These were the ones he Loved to bless and save.
Oh! Holy Christ, Thy mission is not done;
Still on oppression shines the noon-day sun;
Thy children still are trampled in the dust,
‘Neath the remorseless heel of power crushed.
Dost Thou not hear their grief-extorted cry?
Look’st Thou not on them still with pitying eye?
Behold, the Oppressor waxes yet more bold,
And grasps them with a tighter, sterner hold,
While, as of old, the Church and priesthood stand
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Leagued with Thy foes, and claiming Heaven’s command
For all their deeds of villainy and crime
Which stain with human blood the page of time.
But as unto the least of Thine ‘tis done,
‘Neath night’s dark cover, or the blazing sun,
So is it done to Thee, and Thou wilt yet
Thy majesty and power vindicate!
1852.
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ODE TO DEATH.
Blessed Death! thou op’st the door
To the Grand Forevermore!
Unto thee the task is given
To unbar the gates of Heaven!
Thou alone dost hold the keys
Of eternal harmonies!
Thou the secrets dost rehearse
Of the wondrous universe!
Thou art God’s interpreter
Of the mysteries which stir
To its depths the human soul
Longing for its final goal!
Universal friend thou art,
Healing every broken heart!
Ultra Abolitionists,
Breaking the chains as thou dost list!
Stern emancipator, thou
Layest petty despots low;
Breakest every captive’s chain;
Soothest every sufferer’s pain;
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Driest every mourner’s tears;
Quellest all our timorous fears;
Thou shalt fold the human race
In thy loving, dear embrace,
Opening to our failing eyes
Panoramas of the skies.
Fear shall not out bosoms stir,
Welcome! God’s messenger!
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A PARAPHRASE.
One, dressed in purple and linen,
Sat at his ease, in state;
The other, a leprous beggar,
Lay at the rich man’s gate:
Dainty and rare were the viands
On which the rich man fed;
Happy indeed was the beggar
To get but a crust of bread;
With costly and odorous ointments
The rich man’s house abounds,
While never a box of cerate
Has the beggar for his wounds;
And the dogs came forth and licked them,
Richer in sympathy
Than the proud and selfish rich man
Who spurned him heartlessly.
The rich man died, and was buried
With gorgeous and solemn show;
For a rich man’s gold then purchased
Funereal honors, as now;
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But, reckless of these, he lifted
From Hell his imploring eyes,
And beheld the once spurned beggar
Full happy in Paradise,
While he himself was tormented
With fiercely exquisite pain.
Then cried he to Father Abraham,
But alas! he cried in vain;
For, as he had meted to others,
It was measured to him again!
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TO A YOUNG MOTHER.
I.
Another life from Life’s Fountain,
Hath flowed through thy life into being,
And entered a deathless existence.
The sun may go down in a darkness
Which never a dawn-streak shall follow;
The stars may stray from their orbits
And be found not again forever;
The earth may, by fires internal
Be burned into stark desolation;
But thy first-born, little Alameda,
Will live, and live on, while God lives.
II.
Here is work for thy heart, and thy brain, and thy
soul;
This innocent, plastic immortal
Is God’s beneficent task to thee, Mother!
In eternity will thy work be examined and tested.
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God’s workwoman now, thou holdest a high com-
mission.
Those little feet shall walk in the paths thou direct-
est;
Those little hands shall work good or ill at thy
option;
Those little eyes shall dance to the music of thy
glances;
That little heart shall beat to the measure of thy own
heart-throbs;
That little soul shall expand with divine aspirations
Or grow loveless and stunted, as thou willest.
Behold then thy task, O! Mother; wisely survey
it.
An angel might covet a work of such grandeur and
glory;
Dost thou shrink back appalled and affrighted?
III.
God is not an Egyptian! For every task he
appointeth,
He also ordaineth the requisite strength and mater-
ials.
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He knows poor humanity’s trials and weakness,
He well understands its tremulous shrinking and
faintness,
And never His humblest worker had labor allotted,
Which God was not willing to share with him more
than half.
IV.
God waits but thy asking to meet thee.
Art thou weakness? He is strength overflowing.
Art though ignorance? He is wisdom, a fountain
exhaustless.
Art thou darkness? He is light supernal, obscure-
less.
Art thou poverty? He is wealth beyond computa-
tions.
And more than this, O, mother, He is love and He
loves thee.
His infinite heart yearns over thee and thy task.
Open wide to Him the doors of thy soul!
He will enter and fill it with love, which is God,
And therefore is all thou needest!
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INVOCATION
O love, descend and with celestial fire
Dissolve my iciness of soul! Dispel,
With thy supernatural light, the clouds which hang
Like phantoms terrible above my soul.
Within its foul and murky blackness earth
Hath me enshrouded, and no ray divine
From thy far distant sun peers through the gloom,
To chase its darkness and its frozen air.
Let not those horrid monsters twin, Grim Night
And Dreary Winter, reign in me for aye!
Thee I invoke, Spirit of Light divine!
Drive out the fell usurpers, and thy throne
Establish, and o’er all my soul do thou
Sway thy benignant scepter!
Reign thou there
Alone, supreme! With undivided rule
Subject all thoughts, affections, sentiments,
Emotions, aspirations, to thyself!
O! I would be thy child, and like to thee!
Would lean on thee as trustingly as sleeps
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