Difference of Color
Difference of Color
Original Text
Sigourney, L. H., Poems for Children (Hartfield:
Canfield and Robins, 1836): 57-58. Internet Archive
1God gave to Afric's sons
2 A brow of sable dye,
3And spread the country of their birth
4 Beneath a burning sky,
5And with a cheek of olive, made
6 The little Hindoo child,
7And darkly stain'd the forest-tribes
8 That roam our western wild.
9To me he gave a form
10 Of fairer, whiter clay;
11But am I, therefore, in his sight
12 Respected more than they?
13No, 'tis the hue of deeds and thoughts
14 He traces in his Book,
15'Tis the complexion of the heart
16 On which he deigns to look.
17Not by the tinted cheek
18 That fades away so fast,
19But by the color of the soul,
20 We shall be judg'd at last.
21And God, the Judge, will look at me
22 With anger in his eyes,
23If I, my brother's darker brow
24 Should ever dare despise.
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire / Sharine Leung
RPO Edition
2012
Rhyme
Form