The hand of Fate cannot be stayed, <br />The course of Fate cannot be steered, <br />By all the gods that man has made, <br />Nor all the devils he has feared, <br />Not by the prayers that might be prayed <br />In all the temples he has reared. <br /> <br />See! In your very midst there dwell <br />Ten thousand thousand blacks, a wedge <br />Forged in the furnaces of hell, <br />And sharpened to a cruel edge <br />By wrong and by injustice fell, <br />And driven by hatred as a sledge. <br /> <br />A wedge so slender at the start-- <br />Just twenty slaves in shackles bound-- <br />And yet, which split the land apart <br />With shrieks of war and battle sound, <br />Which pierced the nation's very heart, <br />And still lies cankering in the wound. <br /> <br />Not all the glory of your pride, <br />Preserved in story and in song, <br />Can from the judging future hide, <br />Through all the coming ages long, <br />That though you bravely fought and died, <br />You fought and died for what was wrong. <br /> <br />'Tis fixed--for them that violate <br />The eternal laws, naught shall avail <br />Till they their error expiate; <br />Nor shall their unborn children fail <br />To pay the full required weight <br />Into God's great, unerring scale. <br /> <br />Think not repentance can redeem, <br />That sin his wages can withdraw; <br />No, think as well to change the scheme <br />Of worlds that move in reverent awe; <br />Forgiveness is an idle dream, <br />God is not love, no, God is law.<br /><br />James Weldon Johnson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/fragment-23/
