W. H. Goode, "A Truce to Peace" (1902)
Before thou foldest thy pinions on this earth,
Rise to yon heights from which thine eye may scan
Oppressions' wrongs which give the warrior birth.
Know that these wrongs and all their kindred train
Must banished to oblivion be consigned,
Ere man may halt or sheathe his sword again
Reluctant though he be to kill his kind.
Know that the bravest warrior serves thee best
Who on the bloodiest field slays human foes;
To build a shrine wherein thy form may rest
And guarded, be secure in thy repose.
When in forgetfulness of race or clime,
Men, in accord with Christian precepts deal;
Then, not before, my Spirit is the time
That thy glad mandates we with love may seal.
When human freighted ships to Jamestown's shore
Their savage burdens bore and there disposed,
Within her walls they drew the " wooden horse"
And here a Sampson's form has since reposed.
And here they might have toiled long ages hence
Nor sought the virtues of their master's house,
Had they been left to Afric's color dense,
Nor changed to varied hues the sable brows.
But see, the spoiler spoils but his own,
His is the life, the liberty and all,
Service is his and virtue must succumb,
Decree the courts, "The dusky maids must fall."
But in their fall fair maiden see thy woe,
There, none to offer a protecting hand,
From bad to worse thy lusting lovers go,
Till now a new race covers "half the land."
Immoral men, who gave to lust their all,
Ill-favored children born of base desires,
Oh! how we grieve when we see in their fall
That they bring down the daughters of their sires.
Not only this, but vengeance in the land
Stalks in the form of mobs, whose raving cry
Revenge and death, destruction but demand,
When they their country's power thus defy.
If Europe's troops should marshal for a fray,
And bid defiance to the western world,
Armies unknown would muster and dismay
The hosts who back to Europe would be hurled.
But here, at home we're nurturing a foe
More surely on this land's destruction bent
Than foreign arms whose might we'd overthrow.
While here we pause and seem to give assent.
Here, Peace, is cause sufficient for thy flight
Nor tarry thou till this cause is removed
For giant warriors here will wage their fight
Regardless of thy vision much beloved.
In this sad cause I think we might expect,
(Since scriptural reference we do not lack,)
That sin to sin its evil will reflect,
And passion often answer passion back.
Published in Colored American Magazine, September 1902