Nature in him disgrac'd the form divine; That eye Nature mistook, she meant him for a swine: Saw ruin spreading in the wasteful flame; Gash'd o'er with wounds beheld with streaming eye Through ruin'd realms bones lie without a tomb, But turn your eyes, and see the murderer fall, Then say "Cornwallis has atchiev'd it all." Yet he preserves the honour and the fame That vanquish'd heroes only ought to claim Is he a hero! Read, and you will find Heroes are beings of a different kind:· Compassion to the worst of men is due, And mercy heaven's first attribute, 'tis true; Yet most presume it was too nobly done To grant mild terms to Satan's first-born son. Convinc'd we are, no foreign spot on earth But Britain only, gave this reptile birth, That white-cliff'd isle, the vengeful dragon's den, Has sent us monsters where we look'd for men. When memory paints their horrid deeds anew, And brings these murdering miscreants to your view, Then ask the leaders of these bloody bands, Can they expect compassion at our hands? But may this year, the glorious eighty-one, Conclude successful, as it first begun; This brilliant year their total downfall see, And what Cornwallis is, may Clinton be. AMERICANS TO THE MEMORY OF THE BRAVE UNDER GENERAL GREENE, IN SOUTH CAROLINA, WHO FELL IN THE ACTION OF SEPTEMBER 8, 1781 At Eutaw Springs the valiant died; Their limbs with dust are covered o'er – If in this wreck of ruin, they Can yét be thought to claim a tear, Thou, who shalt trace this bloody plain, Sigh for the shepherds, sunk to rest! Stranger, their humble graves adorn; That proves the evening shall be clear. They saw their injured country's woe; but left the shield. Led by thy conquering genius, Greene, But, like the Parthian, famed of old, Now rest in peace, our patriot band; A brighter sunshine of their own. TO SIR TOBY, A SUGAR PLANTER IN THE INTERIOR PARTS OF JAMAICA, NEAR THE CITY OF SAN JAGO DE LA VEGA (SPANISH TOWN), 1784 "The motions of his spirit are black as night, And his affections dark as Erebus." - SHAKESPEARE. If there exists a hell the case is clear Sir Toby's slaves enjoy that portion here: In which some fiend, whom nature must detest, All have their dues and all are paid in cash On a black herd, who would his vengeance fly, For the mean avarice of a tyrant, toil! The lengthy cart-whip guards this monster's reign And cracks, like pistols, from the fields of cane. Ye powers! who formed these wretched tribes, relate, What had they done, to merit such a fate! Why were they brought from Eboe's' sultry waste, Food, which they cannot buy, and dare not steal; 1 This passage has a reference to the West India custom (sanctioned by law) of branding a newly imported slave on the breast, with a red hot iron, as an evidence of the purchaser's property. * A small negro kingdom near the river Senegal. Yams and potatoes - O'er yond' rough hills a tribe of females go, Are such the fruits that spring from vast domains? and how meanly fed! Here Stygian paintings light and shade renew, Here, they, of stuff determined to be free, 1 See Eneid, Book 6th.—and Fénelon's Telemachus, Book 18. 2 The mountains northward of Kingston. Alluding to the Independent negroes in the blue mountains, who, for a stipulated reward, deliver up every fugitive that falls into their hands, to the English Government. THE WILD HONEY SUCKLE Fair flower, that dost so comely grow, No roving foot shall crush thee here, By Nature's self in white arrayed, Smit with those charms, that must decay, They died Shall leave no vestige of this flower. From morning suns and evening dews The space between, is but an hour, THE DEATH SONG OF A CHEROKEE INDIAN The sun sets in night, and the stars shun the day, |