Becoming America - An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution, 2018a

BECOMING AMERICA
REVOLUTIONARY AND EARLY NATIONAL PERIOD LITERATURE
Thy presence why withdraw’st, Lord?
Why hid’st thou now thy face,
When dismal times of deep distress
Call for thy wonted grace?
The wicked, swell’d with lawless pride,
Have made the poor their prey;
O let them fall by those designs
Which they for others lay.
For straight they triumph, if success
Their thriving crimes attend;
And sordid wretches, whom God hates,
Perversely they command.
To own a pow’r above themselves
Their haughty pride disdains;
And, therefore, in their stubborn mind
No thought of God remains.
Oppressive methods they pursue,
And all their foes they slight;
Because thy judgments, unobserv’d,
Are far above their sight.
They fondly think their prosp’rous state
Shall unmolested be;
They think their vain designed shall thrive,
From all misfortune free.
Vain and deceitful is their speech,
With curses ll’d, and lies;
By which the mischief of their heart
They study to disguise.
Near public roads they lie conceal’d
And all their art employ,
The innocent and poor at once
To rie and destroy.
Not lions, crouching in their dens,
Surprise their heedless prey
With greater cunning, or express
More savage rage than they.
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