Explore "Formerly a Slave" by Herman Melville on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
"An idealized Portrait, by E. Vedder, in the Spring Exhibition of the / National Academy, 1865"
The sufferance of her race is shown, / And retrospect of life, / Which now too late deliverance dawns upon; / Yet is she not at strife.
Her children's children they shall know / The good withheld from her; / And so her reverie takes prophetic cheer- / In spirit she sees the stir.
Far down the depth of thousand years, / And marks the revel shine; / Her dusky face is lit with sober light, / Sibylline, yet benign.