Details
STOWE, HARRIET BEECHER, 1811-1896. Autograph manuscript (unsigned, but with clipped signature "H B Stowe" attached to lower portion of second page), a poem, commencing "The pages of this book I read...," n.p., n.d. [c. 1850s]. 2 pages, 4to, blue paper.
AN ALLEGORICAL POEM ON SLAVERY
Untitled, the work consists of eight stanzas, which appear to condemn the institution of slavery in allegorical fashion, likening the enslaved to Samson agonistes and warning of the dangers when Samson rebels:
"There is a poor blind Samson in this land
Shorn of his strength & bound in bonds of steel
Who may in some grim revel raise his hand
And shake the pillars of this commonweal
Till that vast temple of our liberties
A shapeless mass of muck and rubbish lies --"
The author is moved, she writes, to speak out:
"Go on!until this land revokes
The old & chartered lie
The feudal curse whose whips & yokes
Insult humanity..."
Autograph verse by Stowe is rare.
AN ALLEGORICAL POEM ON SLAVERY
Untitled, the work consists of eight stanzas, which appear to condemn the institution of slavery in allegorical fashion, likening the enslaved to Samson agonistes and warning of the dangers when Samson rebels:
"There is a poor blind Samson in this land
Shorn of his strength & bound in bonds of steel
Who may in some grim revel raise his hand
And shake the pillars of this commonweal
Till that vast temple of our liberties
A shapeless mass of muck and rubbish lies --"
The author is moved, she writes, to speak out:
"Go on!until this land revokes
The old & chartered lie
The feudal curse whose whips & yokes
Insult humanity..."
Autograph verse by Stowe is rare.