In Ocean's wide domains, <br /> Half buried in the sands, <br />Lie skeletons in chains, <br /> With shackled feet and hands. <br /> <br />Beyond the fall of dews, <br /> Deeper than plummet lies, <br />Float ships, with all their crews, <br /> No more to sink nor rise. <br /> <br />There the black Slave-ship swims, <br /> Freighted with human forms, <br />Whose fettered, fleshless limbs <br /> Are not the sport of storms. <br /> <br />These are the bones of Slaves; <br /> They gleam from the abyss; <br />They cry, from yawning waves, <br /> "We are the Witnesses!" <br /> <br />Within Earth's wide domains <br /> Are markets for men's lives; <br />Their necks are galled with chains, <br /> Their wrists are cramped with gyves. <br /> <br />Dead bodies, that the kite <br /> In deserts makes its prey; <br />Murders, that with affright <br /> Scare school-boys from their play! <br /> <br />All evil thoughts and deeds; <br /> Anger, and lust, and pride; <br />The foulest, rankest weeds, <br /> That choke Life's groaning tide! <br /> <br />These are the woes of Slaves; <br /> They glare from the abyss; <br />They cry, from unknown graves, <br /> "We are the Witnesses!<br /><br />Henry Wadsworth Longfellow<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/witnesses-the/
