Classic and Contemporary Poetry
COMPASSION; AN ODE IN CELEBRATION ... PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO ANIMALS, by THOMAS HARDY Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Backward among the dusky years Last Line: Calls a yet mightier one. Subject(s): Animal Rights; Compassion; Animal Abuse; Vivisection | ||||||||
I BACKWARD among the dusky years A lonesome lamp is seen arise, Lit by a few fain pioneers Before incredulous eyes. -- We read the legend that it lights: "Wherefore beholds this land of historied rights Mild creatures, despot-doomed, bewildered, plead Their often hunger, thirst, pangs, prisonment. In deep dumb gaze more eloquent Than tongues of widest heed?" II What was faint-written, read in a breath In that year -- ten times ten away -- A larger louder conscience saith More sturdily to-day. -- But still those innocents are thralls To throbless hearts, near, far, that hear no calls Of honour towards their too-dependent frail, And from Columbia Cape to Ind we see How helplessness breeds tyranny In power above assail. III Cries still are heard in secret nooks, Till hushed with gag or slit or thud; And hideous dens whereon none looks Are sprayed with needless blood. But here, in battlings, patient, slow, Much has been won -- more, maybe, than we know -- And on we labour hopeful. "Ailinon!" A mighty voice calls: "But may the good prevail!" And "Blessed are the merciful!" Calls a yet mightier one. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ENTERING THE SOUTH by LUCILLE CLIFTON THE ARTIC OX by MARIANNE MOORE MARY'S LAMB by SARAH JOSEPHA BUELL HALE PLEA FOR A CAPTIVE by WILLIAM STANLEY MERWIN SING-SONG; A NURSERY RHYME BOOK: 97 by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI KINDNESS TO ANIMALS by JOSEPH ASHBY-STERRY PET'S PUNISHMENT by JOSEPH ASHBY-STERRY AND THERE WAS A GREAT CALM' by THOMAS HARDY |
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