Poem #5: Troubled With the Itch and Rubbing With Sulpher

Troubled With the Itch and Rubbing With Sulpher

'Tis Bitter, yet 'tis sweet
     Scratching effects but transient ease;
Pleasure and pain together meet
     And vanish as they please.

My nails, the only balm,
    To every bump are oft applied,
And thus the rage will sweetly calm
    Which aggravates my hide.

It soon returns again:
    A frown succeeds to every smile;
Grinning I scratch and curse the pain
    But grieve to be so vile.

In fine, I know not which 
   Can play the most deceitful game:
The devil, sulphur, or the itch.
     The three are but the same.

The devil sows the itch,

   And  slupher has a loathsome smell,

And with my clothes as black as pitch

   I stink where'er I dwell

Excoriated deep,
     By friction played on every part, 
It oft deprives me of my sleep
   And plagues me to my heart.

George Moses Horton
Declared the Historic Poet Laureate of Chatham County, Horton was born a slave on William Horton's tobacco plantation in 1798. He taught himself to read, though it was forbidden for slaves, and composed and performed poetry about the rural landscape, Civil War politics, and his harsh experiences under slavery. Horton holds the distinction of being the first African American to publish a book, and the only to publish while living in slavery.

"Poetry Landmark: George Moses Horton's Hometown in Chatham County, NC."Www.Poets.org. Ed. Academy American Poets. Academy of American Poets, 07 Aug. 1997. Web. 08 Aug. 2012. <http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5756>.

Horton, George M. "George Moses Horton." African-American Poetry: An Anthology, 1773-1927. By Joan R. Sherman. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 1997. 4. Print.