Page 1 of EBB's manuscript of "The African."
Accession #: EBB MSS, D0015.1
Transcription:
The African
A Poem in two Cantos
Canto the first
Cold shone the moon on distant mountains,
With her mazy beams of light.
Alone the bubbling flow of fountains,
Broke the sweet calm of night.
No more the favoring breeze,
Sweeps the pelucid seas,
Jamaica, loveliest Isle!
No more, thy fervid suns benignant ray.
Sheds his ambrosial day,
Or glads thee with his smile.
For now celestial night’s soft pencil glowing
The landscape paints, & shades the Heav’ns serene,
And o’er the deep, the lone, pure moonbeams flowing
Gild the young waves, & smile upon the scene.
Hail first created light!
Thou shines’t more fair than when I saw thee
Rising on a northern shore,
Where sable clouds, & mists hung o’er thee
And the thick dun vapors lower
Thou shinest here more pure, more bright:
Then hail Celestial night!
Here, in thy native beauty smiling,
To mortals thou art given –
Their wrongs, their yoke beguiling –
Bright as the meteor flies,
Pure as thy kindred skies,
And that benignant Heaven!