DO you think that odes and sermons, And the ringing of church bells, And the blood of old men and young men, Martyred for the truth they saw With eyes made bright by faith in God, Accomplished the world's great reformations? Do you think that the Battle Hymn of the Republic Would have been heard if the chattel slave Had crowned the dominant dollar, In spite of Whitney's cotton gin, And steam and rolling mills and iron And telegraphs and white free labor? Do you think that Daisy Fraser Had been put out and driven out If the canning works had never needed Her little house and lot? Or do you think the poker room Of Johnnie Taylor, and Burchard's bar Had been closed up if the money lost And spent for beer had not been turned, By closing them, to Thomas Rhodes For larger sales of shoes and blankets, And children's cloaks and gold-oak cradles? Why, a moral truth is a hollow tooth Which must be propped with gold. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...JUST & UNJUST by CHARLES SYNGE CHRISTOPHER BOWEN DINING-ROOM TEA by RUPERT BROOKE THE AFRICAN CHIEF by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT LIFE [AND THE FLOWERS] by GEORGE HERBERT THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD TO HIS LOVE by CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE SUMMER LONGINGS by DENIS FLORENCE MCCARTHY THE FIGHT AT SAN JACINTO [APRIL 21, 1836] by JOHN WILLIAMSON PALMER |