Classic Poem

Indeed , this permission is worthy of praise!
You'll allow our dark brother to ride — if he pays;
Though of course we must seat him aloof and afar —
Swart Night from blonde Day has a separate car.

Where this condescension shall cease, who can say?
Perhaps, the next thing, we'll allow him to pray;
And the sexton of Grace — with a grace rather new —
Will pocket his sixpence and show him a pew.

By the way, I've a curious longing to know
How the races were classified ages ago.
I wonder if Noah — that primitive tar —
When he launched the vast hull of his water-way car,
Placed a notice outside, that was good for the trip,
Permitting the " colored " to ride in his ship;
Or did a conductor mount guard in the ark,
Admitting light skins and excluding the dark?

And I wonder if God, when the morn he unfurled,
Thought of placing a label like this on the world;
When he fashioned and grooved each orb in its place,
And the great solar train went whirling through space,
Was there placard affixed to planet or star
Like your " Colored people allowed in this car " ?

There's an old-fashioned car, of a build rather queer,
Unadapted for comfort, dark, dampsome and drear,
And it starts from a depot perhaps you have seen,
Where the ivy grows rankly, the willow waves green;
It goes from our shores, but it comes not again —
All ranks and complexions are one on this train.

You start, my fair friend; I confess 't is not right
That the Ethiop race should thus ride with the white.
Ho! gather your shroud and shrink to one side;
No need to converse though together ye ride.
This train travels swift; at the first station-star
Perhaps they'll appoint you a separate car!

Or you may not complain — I doubt on the whole
If hue of the skin can give tint to the soul;
And 't were better by far that no scorn-shafts you fling —
Who knows what queer changes that morrow may bring?

Thus De Vere and old Pompey — my point to explain —
Might knock at St. Peter's and both knock in vain;
Or it might someway hap — I 'll give you the doubt —
That one was admitted, the other barred out.
And which were the favored is not very clear —
Pompey's worth might outbalance the blood of De Vere!

Ere we part, my fair friend, let me give you a hint,
Since you value yourself on your skin and its tint:
When you've taken this train that is waiting for you,
And the shores of Eternity loom on your view,
You may just chance to stand the wrong side of the bar,
While your " colored " companion's " allowed in the car! "