Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Selected Lyrics
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Public-domain lyrics

The Slave singing at Midnight

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“The Slave singing at Midnight” as printed in Poems on Slavery (1842).

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Selected Lyrics Text 6 1842 · historical text
Public domainHistorical songAbolition song
Complete public-domain lyrics

This text comes from Poems on Slavery, a historical songbook transcribed on Wikisource and reproduced from the pinned revision linked below.

Verse 1

Loud he sang the psalm of David!

He, a Negro and enslaved,

Sang of Israel's victory,

Sang of Zion, bright and free.

Verse 2

In that hour, when night is calmest,

Sang he from the Hebrew Psalmist,

In a voice so sweet and clear

That I could not choose but hear,

Verse 3

Songs of triumph, and ascriptions,

Such as reached the swart Egyptians,

When upon the Red Sea coast

Perished Pharaoh and his host.

Verse 4

And the voice of his devotion

Filled my soul with strange emotion;

For its tones by turns were glad,

Sweetly solemn, wildly sad.

Verse 5

Paul and Silas, in their prison,

Sang of Christ, the Lord arisen,

And an earthquake's arm of might

Broke their dungeon-gates at night.

Verse 6

But, alas! what holy angel

Brings the Slave this glad evangel?

And what earthquake's arm of might

Breaks his dungeon-gates at night?

Credits

Written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Words by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Historical text published in Poems on Slavery (1842); public domain. No claim to a modern recording or arrangement.

Source & text edition

Poems on Slavery (1842), “The Slave singing at Midnight”

Every text in this 1842 collection is by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), who died more than 140 years ago, so the text is in the public domain worldwide; the edition carries a Wikisource PD-old determination.

How to read this historical text and its source

Read the source on Wikisource

View copyright evidence · Transcription terms (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Retrieved 2026-10-27. Line spacing and section labels are adapted for reading. The displayed text follows the linked edition. Editorial notes and abstract artwork are by 52lyrics.
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