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! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...FRAGMENTS WRITTEN WHILE TRAVELING...A MIDWESTERN HEAT WAVE by JAMES GALVIN FUGUE FOR A DROWNED GIRL by JAMES GALVIN WHAT I'VE BELIEVED IN by JAMES GALVIN THE LEAVES OF THE TREE HIDE THE SUN by DAVID IGNATOW JULY IN GEORGY by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON ON CARPACCIO'S PICTURE: THE DREAM OF ST. URSALA; SONNET by AMY LOWELL |