Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TO A CAGED LION, by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Poor conquered monarch! Though that haughty glance Last Line: Must bow thy savage strength, the mockery of a child! Subject(s): Animals; Lions | ||||||||
POOR conquered monarch! though that haughty glance Still speaks thy courage unsubdued by time, And in the grandeur of thy sullen tread Lives the proud spirit of thy burning clime; -- Fettered by things that shudder at thy roar, Torn from thy pathless wilds to pace this narrow floor! Thou wast the victor, and all nature shrunk Before the thunders of thine awful wrath; The steel-armed hunter viewed thee from afar, Fearless and trackless in thy lonely path! The famished tiger closed his flaming eye, And crouched and panted as thy step went by! Thou art the vanquished, and insulting man Bars thy broad bosom as a sparrow's wing; His nerveless arms thine iron sinews bind, And lead in chains the desert's fallen king; Are these the beings that have dared to twine Their feeble threads around those limbs of thine? So must it be; the weaker, wiser race, That wields the tempest and that rides the sea, Even in the stillness of thy solitude Must teach the lesson of its power to thee; And thou, the terror of the trembling wild, Must bow thy savage strength, the mockery of a child! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE TELEPATHIC CARNIVORE by WILL ALEXANDER BUFFALO CLOUDS OVER THE MAESTRO HOON by NORMAN DUBIE ELEGY FOR WRIGHT & HUGO by NORMAN DUBIE LION AND LIONESS by EDWIN MARKHAM LEONARDO DA VINCI'S by MARIANNE MOORE WHY NOBODY PETS THE LION AT THE ZOO by JOHN CIARDI THE LION AND THE DOG by ROBERT CREELEY JIM, WHO RAN AWAY FROM HIS NURSE, AND WAS EATEN BY A LION by HILAIRE BELLOC A BALLAD OF THE BOSTON TEA-PARTY [DECEMBER 16, 1773] by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES |
|