I HEAR men say, he changes as the wind, Faith, doubt, intolerance, alternate sings, How may we know the in-ness of his mind Or hear the voice of Truth 'midst warring strings? Or how respond to songs of love and life, Or thrill to cadences of mournful tone When the same lips that wake them seem at strife And voicing every passion save their own? How much of verity the plaint contains I leave who cares to vouch for or deny; I do but weave the burden of my strains From men and women, earth, air, sea and sky. I sing of things that are, and aye will be So long as holds the blight of primal curse; Up to the things I know and feel and see I hold the feeble mirror of my verse. So if amid my song some doubts and fears O'er-shadow Faith, or that which bears the name, Think you the past has known, or future years Bring forth one soul who will not know the same? Intolerant perchance, and wherefore not? Are toil and food and sleep man's whole estate? Sharing with animals a common lot, Waiting as mendicants the doles of Fate? Intolerant! Ye gods! With Life a cage That poverty has locked and sold the key, Bonding her millions whom their lot assuage By kissing chains and shouting they are free. There, there, I give them rods wherewith to beat, My muse and me with usual critic ruth, A wiser scribe would roll in honeyed sweet The things they want to hear and gulp for truth. Still, you who sit in judgment, critics, friends, (The terms can be synonymous)—I do defy You and the world unto its farmost ends— What man of you can say I writ a lie? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AT THE CLOSED GATE OF JUSTICE by JAMES DAVID CORROTHERS GO DOWN DEATH; A FUNERAL SERMON by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON PSALM 95 by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE RETURN OF THE NATIVE by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN THE AUTHOR'S FRIEND TO THE READER by WILLIAM BROWNE (1591-1643) |