Classic Poem

Lines written on the fly-leaf of a volume of poems presented to Mary Elliot Flanery.
Dear M RS . F LANERY :

As your eager eyes peruse
These pages over and again,
These verses sent me by the muse
I'd have you know that not in vain,
You wrote those sincere words of praise
Of me who sprang from humble birth,
Sprang from a race down trod and low,
Cursed, abused, despised of earth.
A pleasant fact it is to know
(Though now it's not Anti-slavery days)
That that same principle possessed
By Sumner, Phillips, Whittier, Stowe
Vibrates within your noble breast,
Which fortune cannot overthrow,
Which ridicule cannot remove.
A heart more generous than your own
To fredom and to human kind
The flight of years have never known,
Have never, never dared to find.
Live long your principles to prove.