Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE POOR VOTER ON ELECTION DAY, by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: The proudest now is but my peer Last Line: A man's a man to-day! Subject(s): Elections; Voting; Voters; Suffrage | ||||||||
THE proudest now is but my peer, The highest not more high; To-day, of all the weary year, A king of men am I. To-day alike are great and small, The nameless and the known; My palace is the people's hall, The ballot-box my throne! Who serves to-day upon the list Beside the served shall stand; Alike the brown and wrinkled fist, The gloved and dainty hand! The rich is level with the poor, The weak is strong to-day; And sleekest broadcloth counts no more Than homespun frock of gray. To-day let pomp and vain pretence My stubborn right abide; I set a plain man's common sense Against the pedant's pride. To-day shall simple manhood try The strength of gold and land; The wide world has not wealth to buy The power in my right hand! While there's a grief to seek redress, Or balance to adjust, Where weighs our living manhood less Than Mammon's vilest dust, -- While there's a right to need my vote, A wrong to sweep away, Up! clouted knee and ragged coat! A man's a man to-day! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...INAUGURATION DAY: JANUARY 1953 by ROBERT LOWELL THE DEMONSTRATION by GREGORY ORR YOUNG SAMMY'S FIRST WILD OATS by GEORGE SANTAYANA ON A GREAT ELECTION; EPIGRAM by HILAIRE BELLOC THE BIGLOW PAPERS: 3. WHAT MR. ROBINSON THINKS by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL THE COUNTRY CLERGYMAN'S TRIP TO CAMBRIDGE; ELECTION BALLAD by THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY COLORED HEROES, HARK THE BUGLE; POLITICAL by ROBERT CHARLES O'HARA BENJAMIN SUFFRAGE MARCHING-SONG by LOUIS JAMES BLOCK AN ELECTION BALLAD by ROBERT BURNS AMY WENTWORTH; FOR WILLIAM BRADFORD by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER |
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