Poems on Slavery/The Quadroon Girl

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

THE QUADROON.

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The Slaver in the broad lagoon
 Lay moored with idle sail;
He waited for the rising moon,
 And for the evening gale.

Under the shore his boat was tied,
 And all her listless crew
Watched the gray alligator slide
 Into the still bayou.

Odors of orange-flowers, and spice,
 Reached them from time to time,
Like airs that breathe from Paradise
 Upon a world of crime.

The Planter, under his roof of thatch,
 Smoked thoughtfully and slow;
The Slaver's thumb was on the latch,
 He seemed in haste to go.

He said, "My ship at anchor rides
 In yonder broad lagoon;
I only wait the evening tides,
 And the rising of the moon."

Before them, with her face upraised,
 In timid attitude,
Like one half curious, half amazed,
 A Quadroon maiden stood.

Her eyes were, like a falcon's, gray,
 Her arms and neck were bare;
No garment she wore save a kirtle gay,
 And her own long, raven hair.

And on her lips there played a smile
 As holy, meek, and faint,
As lights in some cathedral aisle
 The features of a saint.

"The soil is barren,—the farm is old";
 The thoughtful Planter said;
Then looked upon the Slaver's gold,
 And then upon the maid.

His heart within him was at strife
 With such accursed gains:
For he knew whose passions gave her life,
 Whose blood ran in her veins.

But the voice of nature was too weak;
 He took the glittering gold!
Then pale as death grew the maiden's cheek,
 Her hands as icy cold.

The Slaver led her from the door,
 He led her by the hand,
To be his slave and paramour
 In a strange and distant land!