THOU, whom the slave-lords with contemptuous feet Spurned in their double insult -- taunting thee, As born of Labor and of Poverty, With scorn in thine abasement most unmeet, How dost thou find their false embraces sweet! How, so insanely blind, thou canst not see What shameless scoffs in their applauses be? So took the drunken slave, in Roman street, The homage of his master's mocking mirth: And thou, who mightst have lifted up thy race, Dost rather take from Toil its dignity, And unto ignorance addest fresh disgrace. But we shall sweep that system from the earth Which gave us Treason, war, and lastly -- thee! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MY HUT; AFTER TRAN QUANG KHAI by HAYDEN CARRUTH O DREAMS, O DESTINATIONS by CECIL DAY LEWIS A POEM FROM BOULDER RIDGE by JAMES GALVIN BRIGHTNESS AS A POIGNANT LIGHT by DAVID IGNATOW THE PAST IS THE PRESENT (2) by MARIANNE MOORE |