Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, GULLIVER BOUND, by ELEANOR PRESTON WATKINS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

GULLIVER BOUND, by                    
First Line: How could you let them dupe you and betray
Last Line: Shall yet find wings!
Subject(s): Russia; Soviet Union; Russians


How could you let them dupe you and betray
You, giant-child,
When once you burst your bonds and made you free?
Blinded by Freedom's sun, you could not see;
You lost your way.
The Lilliputians' loathsome brew of lies
You drank, and ran amok, -- drugged, mad, defiled, --
Not free!
They bound you with a thousand tenuous ties,
The poisonous spider-threads that traitors spin.
Now you are overthrown who overthrew,
And all Hell's furies are let loose within,
While over your great prostrate body crawl
And fight and sprawl
The noxious vermin, slimy little souls,
Who drugged you, stabbed at Freedom's heart with lies!

Poor muddled giant! Freedom's youngest child!
You tried to fly before you learned to walk.
What if too sudden light has struck you blind
After the dark of centuries?
Once you stood upright, once you faced the sun!
This dizziness will pass, when you have cleared
The black before your eyes.
Up you will stagger to your feet again,
And you will cleanse your garments, mud-besmeared
And trampled by your traitors and dead kings.
Then friendly hands shall be held out to you,
Shall lead your feet in their first stumbling steps
Along the straight hard pathway of the free
Where all the dreaming peoples of the world
Shall yet find wings!





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