WHATCHEER, OR ROGER WILLIAMS IN BANISHMENT. A POEM. BY JOB DURFEE, Esq. And, surely betweene my friends of the Bay and Plimouth, I was sorely HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY Entered according to an Act of Congress, in the year 1832, by Job Durfee, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, within and for the Rhode-Island District. WHATCHEER. CANTO FIRST. I sing the trials and the sufferings great, And roving long by Narraganset's shore, II. He was a man of spirit true and bold; Feared not to speak his thoughts whate'er they were His frame, though light, was of an iron mould, And fitted well fatigue and change to bear; For God ordained that he should breast the cold Of howling wilderness, in winter drear, And of red Savages protection pray From Christians, but-more savage far than they. III. Mid winter reigned; and Salem's infant town, Where late were cleft the forest's skirts away, Showed its low roofs, and from the thatching brown, The sheeted ice sent back the sun's last ray; The school-boys left the village slippery down, So keen the blast came o'er the eastern bay, And the pale sun in vapors thick went down, And the glassed forest cast a sombre frown. IV. The busy house-wife guarded well the door, That night, against the gathering winter stormDid the rude walls of all the cot explore Where'er the snow-gust might a passage form; And to the couch of age and childhood bore With anxious care the mantle thick and warm; And then of fuel gathered ample store, And bade the blaze up the rude chimney roar. V. On this drear night was Williams seated by And, from the lashes of her azure eye, She often brushed the starting tear aside— At spring's approach they savage wilds must try ; Such was the sentence of stern bigotry! VI. Beside the good man lay his Bible fair, Of Israel wandering in the desert sand; VII. Whilst pondered he the sacred volume o'er, The exile's wanderings and the dungeon's pest, A heavy foot approached his humble door, VIII. "I come," he said in accents hard and stern, IX. "Till spring we gave; and thou wast not to teach Thy sentenced faith to erring men the while; But to depart, or with submissive speech, Regain the church and leave thy doctrines vile, Of this injunction thou committest breach, And Salem's church dost of her saints despoil : Plan too, 'tis rumored by the mouth of each, X. "From such a State our blessed elders see Christ's church, e'en here, may the infection share ; "Tis therefore that the Council now decree, That to the wilderness thou shalt not fare; XI. Williams replied, "Thy message is unkind; I e'en perchance may think it something rude, The snow falls fast and searching is the wind, And wild the blast howls through the darkened wood. |