The Slave Mother + 

Heard you that shriek? It rose + 

So wildly on the air, + 

It seemed as if a burden’d heart + 

Was breaking in despair. + 

Saw you those hands so sadly clasped⁠— + 

The bowed and feeble head⁠— + 

The shuddering of that fragile form⁠— + 

That look of grief and dread? + 

Saw you the sad, imploring eye? + 

Its every glance was pain, + 

As if a storm of agony + 

Were sweeping through the brain. + 

She is a mother, pale with fear, + 

Her boy clings to her side, + 

And in her kirtle vainly tries + 

His trembling form to hide. + 

He is not hers, although she bore + 

For him a mother’s pains; + 

He is not hers, although her blood + 

Is coursing through his veins! + 

He is not hers, for cruel hands + 

May rudely tear apart + 

The only wreath of household love + 

That binds her breaking heart. + 

His love has been a joyous light + 

That o’er her pathway smiled, + 

A fountain gushing ever new, + 

Amid life’s desert wild. + 

His lightest word has been a tone + 

Of music round her heart, + 

Their lives a streamlet blent in one⁠— + 

Oh, Father! must they part? + 

They tear him from her circling arms, + 

Her last and fond embrace: + 

Oh! never more may her sad eyes + 

Gaze on his mournful face. + 

No marvel, then, these bitter shrieks + 

Disturb the listening air: + 

She is a mother, and her heart + 

Is breaking in despair. + 