Death, I have walked with you through summer days, Bright summer days, life leaping to its prime; When fields laughed innocent of harvest time, And you were banished from sweet country ways Pelted with blossoms; -- prone, yet strong to raise Your head and, like your fallen parent, climb To hellish rule in city streets. Whose crime, The myriad children each fair Summer slays? Man's work, this is, not God's. Him we forget, Housing our brethren like beasts of the soil, Of beauty stripped, of smiles, of youth, of health. The curse of slavery is with us yet; Which uses without love, accepts the toil, Discards the life, and builds on blood its wealth. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONG: THE STRICKEN DEER by THOMAS MOORE MEMORY by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS TO A FRIEND by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD HYMN TO THE WINDS by JOACHIM DU BELLAY SNOW OR SNOWDROPS? by MATHILDE BLIND AN EPITAPH (AFTER THE GREEK EPIGRAMS) by CHARLES WILLIAM BRODRIBB FORGIVENESS by THORA MACCLARRAN BURGESS FOUR SONGS BY WAY OF CHORUS TO A PLAY: 1. OF JEALOUSY. A DIALOGUE by THOMAS CAREW |