At Port Royal

The tent-lights glimmer on the land,     The ship-lights on the sea;     The night-wind smooths with drifting sand     Our track on lone Tybee.     At last our grating keels outslide,     Our good boats forward swing;     And while we ride the land-locked tide,     Our negroes row and sing.     For dear the bondman holds his gifts     Of music and of song     The gold that kindly Nature sifts     Among his sands of wrong:     The power to make his toiling days     And poor home-comforts please;     The quaint relief of mirth that plays     With sorrows minor keys.     Another glow than sunsets fire     Has filled the west with light,     Where field and garner, barn and byre,     Are blazing through the night.     The land is wild with fear and hate,     The rout runs mad and fast;     From hand to hand, from gate to gate     The flaming brand is passed.     The lurid glow falls strong across     Dark faces broad with smiles:     Not theirs the terror, hate, and loss     That fire yon blazing piles.     With oar-strokes timing to their song,     They weave in simple lays     The pathos of remembered wrong,     The hope of better days,     The triumph-note that Miriam sung,     The joy of uncaged birds:     Softening with Africs mellow tongue     Their broken Saxon words.     Song of the Negro Boatmen.     Oh, praise an tanks! De Lord he come     To set de people free;     An massa tink it day ob doom,     An we ob jubilee.     De Lord dat heap de Red Sea waves     He jus as trong as den;     He say de word: we las night slaves;     To-day, de Lords freemen.     De yam will grow, de cotton blow,             Well hab de rice an corn:     Oh nebber you fear, if nebber you hear             De driver blow his horn!     Ole massa on he trabbels gone;     He leaf de land behind:     De Lords breff blow him furder on,     Like corn-shuck in de wind.     We own de hoe, we own de plough,     We own de hands dat hold;     We sell de pig, we sell de cow,     But nebber chile be sold.     De yam will grow, de cotton blow,             Well hab de rice an corn:     Oh nebber you fear, if nebber you hear             De driver blow his horn!     We pray de Lord: he gib us signs     Dat some day we be free;     De norf-wind tell it to de pines,     De wild-duck to de sea;     We tink it when de church-bell ring,     We dream it in de dream;     De rice-bird mean it when he sing,     De eagle when be scream.     De yam will grow, de cotton blow,             Well hab de rice an corn:     Oh nebber you fear, if nebber you hear             De driver blow his horn!     We know de promise nebber fail,     An nebber lie de word;     So like de postles in de jail,     We waited for de Lord:     An now he open ebery door,     An trow away de key;     He tink we lub him so before,     We lub him better free.     De yam will grow, de cotton blow,             Hell gib de rice an corn:     Oh nebber you fear, if nebber you hear             De driver blow his horn!     So sing our dusky gondoliers;     And with a secret pain,     And smiles that seem akin to tears,     We hear the wild refrain.     We dare not share the negros trust,     Nor yet his hope deny;     We only know that God is just,     And every wrong shall die.     Rude seems the song; each swarthy face,     Flame-lighted, ruder still:     We start to think that hapless race     Must shape our good or ill;     That laws of changeless justice bind     Oppressor with oppressed;     And, close as sin and suffering joined,     We march to Fate abreast.     Sing on, poor hearts! your chant shall be     Our sign of blight or bloom,     The Vala-song of Liberty,     Or death-rune of our doom!