Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE DISENTHRALLED, by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER


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THE DISENTHRALLED, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: He had bowed down to drunkenness
Last Line: Unto the godlike mind!
Subject(s): Temperance; Prohibition


HE had bowed down to drunkenness,
An abject worshipper;
The pride of manhood's pulse had grown
Too faint and cold to stir;
And he had given his spirit up
To the unblessed thrall,
And bowing to the poison cup,
He gloried in his fall!

There came a change -- the cloud rolled off,
And light fell on his brain --
And like the passing of a dream
That cometh not again,
The shadow of the spirit fled.
He saw the gulf before,
He shuddered at the waste behind,
And was a man once more.

He shook the serpent folds away,
That gathered round his heart,
As shakes the swaying forest-oak
It poison vine apart;
He stood erect; returning pride
Grew terrible within,
And conscience sat in judgment, on
His most familiar sin.

The light of Intellect again
Along his pathway shone;
And Reason like a monarch sat
Upon his olden throne.
The honored and the wise once more
Within his presence came;
And lingered oft on lovely lips
His once forbidden name.

There may be glory in the might
That treadeth nations down;
Wreaths for the crimson conqueror,
Pride for the kingly crown;
But nobler is that triumph hour,
The disenthralled shall find,
When evil passion boweth down
Unto the Godlike mind!





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