The sufferance of her race is shown, <br />And retrospect of life, <br />Which now too late deliverance dawns upon; <br />Yet is she not at strife. <br /> <br />Her children's children they shall know <br />The good withheld from her; <br />And so her reverie takes prophetic cheer-- <br />In spirit she sees the stir. <br /> <br />Far down the depth of thousand years, <br />And marks the revel shine; <br />Her dusky face is lit with sober light, <br />Sibylline, yet benign.<br /><br />Herman Melville<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/formerly-a-slave-2/
