I was convicted by the laws
Of England’s hostile crown,
Conveyed across those swelling seas
In slavery’s fetters bound.
For ever banished from that shore
Where love and friendship grow
That loss of freedom to deplore
And work the labouring hoe.
Despised, rejected and oppressed
In tattered rags I’m clad,
What anguish fills my aching breast
And almost drives me mad,
When I hear the settler’s threatening voice
Say, “Arise, to labour go;
Take scourging, convicts for your choice
Or work the labouring hoe.”
Growing weary from compulsive toil
Beneath the noontide sun,
While drops of sweat bedew the soil
My task remains undone.
I’m flogged for wilful negligence
Or the tyrants call it so,
Ah, what a doleful recompense
For labouring with the hoe.
Behold lofty woodbine hills
Where the rose in the morning shines,
Those crystal brooks that do distil
And mingle through those vines-
There seems to me no pleasure gained,
They but augment my woe
Whilst here an outcast doomed to live
And work the labouring hoe.
You generous sons of Erin’s isle
Whose heart for glory burns,
Pity a wretched exile who
His long-lost country mourns;
Restore me, Heaven to liberty
Whilst I lie here below
Untie that clue of bondage
And release me from the hoe.
(Francis McNamara)
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Based on Topics: Heaven Poems, Morning Poems, Law & Regulation Poems, Liberty & Freedom Poems, Madness Poems, Slavery Poems, Labor Poems, Tyranny & Despotism Poems, England Poems, Rejection PoemsBased on Keywords: settler, untie, scourging, negligence, convicts, flogged, compulsive