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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ODE TO DEMOCRACY by JOSEPH SEAMON COTTER JR.

First Line: WHITHER BOUND AND HOW GOETH?
Last Line: ON FREEDOM'S HOLY LAND.
Subject(s): DEMOCRACY;
Whither bound and how goeth?
On what tempestuous sea
Hast thou deployed thy bark?
In what manner bloweth
Those winds that drive thee
On thy perilous way?
In what steel dost thou array
Thyself and be armed for the fray?
What pilot, enshrouded in the dark,
Dost guide thee
From the quay?

Democracy speaks

Bound I am for that endless shore,
Where dwelleth eternal liberty
Free from the tyranny
Of the benighted fetish of "Right Divine,"
Where dwelleth the verity
Of man's brotherhood to man,
Where standeth the open door
Thru which doth shine
The everlasting light,
That thru the darkest night
May yet be seen God's plan.

I launch my bark on the troubled sea
Of tyranny;
Flecked with the bloody foam
Of its martyred dead;
Strewn with the flesh of those who bled
That freedom yet may reign
O'er land and home.
Tossed by heresy,
By plotting foe and blundering friend,
My strength may wane
As light midst approaching dark,
But ever upright is my bark,
Ever forward is her prow
Till reached the destined end.
Armed with Godly Faith and Brotherly Love,
Piloted by Him who dwelleth above
I shall be then—where now
I sight the strand—
On freedom's holy land.



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