{"id":11649,"date":"2011-01-21T05:10:02","date_gmt":"2011-01-21T05:10:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=11649"},"modified":"2011-01-21T05:10:02","modified_gmt":"2011-01-21T05:10:02","slug":"the-quadroon-girl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=11649","title":{"rendered":"The Quadroon Girl"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Quadroon Girl<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Poems on Slavery
\n<\/em>1842<\/p>\n

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow<\/a><\/strong> (1807-1882)<\/p>\n

Provided by the Maine Historical Society<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The Slaver in the broad lagoon
\n\u00a0 Lay moored with idle sail;
\nHe waited for the rising moon,
\n\u00a0 And for the evening gale.<\/p>\n

Under the shore his boat was tied,
\n\u00a0 And all her listless crew
\nWatched the gray alligator slide
\n\u00a0 Into the still bayou.<\/p>\n

Odors of orange-flowers, and spice,
\n\u00a0 Reached them from time to time,
\nLike airs that breathe from Paradise
\n\u00a0 Upon a world of crime.<\/p>\n

The Planter, under his roof of thatch,
\n\u00a0 Smoked thoughtfully and slow;
\nThe Slaver’s thumb was on the latch,
\n\u00a0 He seemed in haste to go.<\/p>\n

He said, “My ship at anchor rides
\n\u00a0 In yonder broad lagoon;
\nI only wait the evening tides,
\n\u00a0 And the rising of the moon.”<\/p>\n

Before them, with her face upraised,
\n\u00a0 In timid attitude,
\nLike one half curious, half amazed,
\n\u00a0 A Quadroon<\/a> maiden stood.<\/p>\n

Her eyes were large, and full of light,
\n\u00a0 Her arms and neck were bare;
\nNo garment she wore save a kirtle bright,
\n\u00a0 And her own long, raven hair.<\/p>\n

And on her lips there played a smile
\n\u00a0 As holy, meek, and faint,
\nAs lights in some cathedral aisle
\n\u00a0 The features of a saint.<\/p>\n

“The soil is barren,–the farm is old,”
\n\u00a0 The thoughtful planter said;
\nThen looked upon the Slaver’s gold,
\n\u00a0 And then upon the maid.<\/p>\n

His heart within him was at strife
\n\u00a0 With such accurs\u00e9d gains:
\nFor he knew whose passions gave her life,
\n\u00a0 Whose blood ran in her veins.<\/p>\n

But the voice of nature was too weak;
\n\u00a0 He took the glittering gold!
\nThen pale as death grew the maiden’s cheek,
\n\u00a0 Her hands as icy cold.<\/p>\n

The Slaver led her from the door,
\n\u00a0 He led her by the hand,
\nTo be his slave and paramour
\n\u00a0 In a strange and distant land!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Quadroon Girl Poems on Slavery 1842 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) Provided by the Maine Historical Society The Slaver in the broad lagoon \u00a0 Lay moored with idle sail; He waited for the rising moon, \u00a0 And for the evening gale. Under the shore his boat was tied, \u00a0 And all her listless crew Watched […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1617],"tags":[3487,5254],"class_list":["post-11649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-poetry-books","tag-henry-wadsworth-longfellow","tag-maine-historical-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11649\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}