Potential Titles: Oration on Charles Sumner, Addressed to Colored People [1874]

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This is a long, posthumous tribute poem to Charles Sumner an abolitionist whose primary claim to fame is having been beaten half to death on the floor of the US Senate in 1856 during arguments about Kansas and slavery. I didn't finish reading the poem because it was treacly and because the title feels condescending (I'm not sure it was meant that way, but language changes over 150-ish years).


Shift the gorgeous scenery of the sky - "Oration on Charles Sumner, Addressed to Colored People"

The sighs that follow him up the golden stair - "Oration on Charles Sumner, Addressed to Colored People"

Echoing through all the shining corridors - "Oration on Charles Sumner, Addressed to Colored People"

Hushes the hasty footfall of coming spring - "Oration on Charles Sumner, Addressed to Colored People"

Beat upon our hearts like showers of frozen hail - "Oration on Charles Sumner, Addressed to Colored People"

Heirloom to all the sorrowing nations of the earth - "Oration on Charles Sumner, Addressed to Colored People"

Builded without the sound of hammer or chisel - "Oration on Charles Sumner, Addressed to Colored People"

Under the sombre shadow of the past - "Oration on Charles Sumner, Addressed to Colored People"

Waiting for the angel of the future - "Oration on Charles Sumner, Addressed to Colored People"

Within the folding of those azure doors - "Oration on Charles Sumner, Addressed to Colored People"

Till all the waters of liberty flowed forth - "Oration on Charles Sumner, Addressed to Colored People"

That smote the pillar of your wrongs in the dust - "Oration on Charles Sumner, Addressed to Colored People"

Traced its guilty lines upon the page - "Oration on Charles Sumner, Addressed to Colored People"

His silent chamber eloquent with his agony - "Oration on Charles Sumner, Addressed to Colored People"

Leaving to coming generations a record - "Oration on Charles Sumner, Addressed to Colored People"

The sacred cloister of our souls - "Oration on Charles Sumner, Addressed to Colored People"

Upon whose silver stair expectant angels wait - "Oration on Charles Sumner, Addressed to Colored People"

Wrought out of the fires of anguish and pain - "Oration on Charles Sumner, Addressed to Colored People"

Slow, sure round upon the wheels of time - "Oration on Charles Sumner, Addressed to Colored People"

In winnowing out the one bright grain of truth - "Oration on Charles Sumner, Addressed to Colored People"

From the chaff of shiftless falsehood - "Oration on Charles Sumner, Addressed to Colored People"

That rush from the bitter fountain of the grieved - "Oration on Charles Sumner, Addressed to Colored People"

Closing the silent gates of night - "Oration on Charles Sumner, Addressed to Colored People"

The whole artillery of hell is brought to bear - "Oration on Charles Sumner, Addressed to Colored People"

Struggling with some deadly temptation - "Oration on Charles Sumner, Addressed to Colored People"

Taking some wild passion by the throat - "Oration on Charles Sumner, Addressed to Colored People"

Gripped by the sinewy hand of Satan - "Oration on Charles Sumner, Addressed to Colored People"

Selling the very sinews of their country - "Oration on Charles Sumner, Addressed to Colored People"

Carried with him the brightest stars of the age - "Oration on Charles Sumner, Addressed to Colored People"

Filling up the vast storehouses of his mind - "Oration on Charles Sumner, Addressed to Colored People"


Wikipedia page about Charles Sumner.

Oration on Charles Sumner at Project Gutenberg.


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