ON dusky shoulders Ported through hot Afric fens, Where the slaver's victim moulders By the ugly Soko glens, Behold the man — Within his stretcher lying, Body torn, Thin and worn, But hopefully defying Death! With feeble fingers Grasping still his honest pen, With a trust that never lingers Writes he 'midst the murky fen, Of what he sees And thinks and feels there lying, Body torn, Thin and worn, But hopefully defying Death! Though the miles before him Are a thousand dangerous, Though the sun, a furnace o'er him, Burns his flesh all feverous, He presses on Within his stretcher lying, Body torn, Thin and worn, But hopefully defying Death! No white man near him As he breathes his last brave word, No loved voice to kindly cheer him, By immortal courage stirred, Unflinchingly He meets his fate there lying, Body torn, Thin and worn, But hopefully defying Death! The world's a debtor For his life of fortitude, For a million lives made better By his struggle with the brood Of Afric's ills, Within his stretcher lying, Body torn, Thin and worn, But hopefully defying Death! And beyond the present, When a people great as ours Fill that land with cities pleasant, Patriot bards will scatter flowers On Livingstone, Within his stretcher lying, Body torn, Thin and worn, But hopefully defying Death! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE TRANCE by LASCELLES ABERCROMBIE TO AN INDEPENDENT PREACHER by MATTHEW ARNOLD PICTURES OF MOTHER by STELLA PFEIFFER BAISCH THE FINEST DAY OF ONE'S LIFE by JACQUES BARON THE LOST GODS ABIDING by WILLIAM ROSE BENET THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL: PREFACE by WILLIAM BLAKE A POET by AMELIA JOSEPHINE BURR |