Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 2. O MIGHTY MOTHER, by EDWARD CARPENTER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 2. O MIGHTY MOTHER, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: O mighty mother - in silence receive thy child
Last Line: The earth, and thou shalt learn me to fly through heaven.
Subject(s): Freedom; Liberty


O MIGHTY Mother—in silence receive thy child.
Weary, fainting, having traveled far and forsaken thee, having undertaken
burdens too great to be borne—
Atlas of griefs and sorrows, well nigh borne down beneath the load—
Thy foolish child, wandering afar from thee, yet led by what divine
madness?—
O mighty Mother receive.

Never again to stray.
Having circled the globe, having completed the many-thousand-year-long
round which thou secretly appointedst for me—
Through what mystifications troubles delays, what returning on old tracks,
what torments and inward suffering (thou knowest best)—
What entanglements and illusions—
O mighty Mother receive!

Outcast and friendless (for that was my necessary doom) and homeless on the
verge of creation I first knew myself—sorrow was the wall which divided me
from thee.
I beheld thee afar and knew thee not; I was a prisoner and guessed not that
I was in prison.

But now at thy feet—thanks, thanks
Pouring out my soul in gratitude to thee—thy child so foolish, to
Thee, dear mother:
Whilst thou one by one disentanglest the loaded heavy chains which I have
dragged so far—
(One by one, for not all at once will they come off, and fast and eating
into my flesh are they riveted)—
At thy feet I sit and sing, knowing thou hast sworn to give me Freedom.

Ages shall my song last, for not all at once can I disburden myself;
Ages will I sing for joy—warbling in thy presence—as the birds to
the risen sun;
Then at last arising Thou mother shalt take me by the hand: we will leave
the earth, and thou shalt learn me to fly through heaven.





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