Poems (Southey)/Volume 1/Sonnet 6 (High in the air expos'd the Slave is hung)

For works with similar titles, see Sonnet.
Poems
by Robert Southey
Sonnet 6 (High in the air expos'd the Slave is hung)
4250729Poems — Sonnet 6 (High in the air expos'd the Slave is hung)Robert Southey

SONNET VI.



High in the air expos'd the Slave is hung,To all the birds of Heaven, their living food!He groans not, tho' awaked by that fierce SunNew torturers live to drink their parent blood! He groans not, tho' the gorging Vulture tearThe quivering fibre! hither gaze O yeWho tore this Man from Peace and Liberty!Gaze hither ye who weigh with scrupulous care The right and prudent; for beyond the graveThere is another world! and call to mind,Ere your decrees proclaim to all mankind Murder is legalized, that there the Slave Before the Eternal, "thunder-tongued shall plead Against the deep damnation of your deed,"1794.