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Subject: SOCIAL PROTEST
Matches Found: 476

UPDATE command denied to user 'poetryex_users'@'localhost' for table `poetryex_poems`.`subcnt` ####################################################################################################, by ROBERT LOWELL    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Where two or three were flung together, or fifty
Last Line: That helped me stagger to my feet, and flee
Subject(s): Social Protest; Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975


14-FEB-89, by KIM THERESA ADDONIZIO    Poem Source                    
First Line: North's lawyers say he'll claim a cover-up
Last Line: The roses you brought have opened
Subject(s): Holidays; Love; Social Protest; Valentine's Day


140 SYLLABLES, by KENNETH REXROTH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: All my life I have wondered
Last Line: Out of all the dirty squares
Subject(s): Expressionism - Poets; Poetry & Poets; Social Protest


140 SYLLABLES, by KENNETH REXROTH    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: All my life I have wondered
Last Line: Out of all the dirty squares
Subject(s): Expressionism - Poets; Poetry And Poets; Social Protest


19-JUN-53, by EDWIN ROLFE    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: This court, supreme in blindness and in hate
Last Line: Kills jews today, as twenty-five years ago, %it killed italians
Alternate Author Name(s): Fishman, Solomon
Subject(s): Social Protest


A BALLAD OF DEAD GIRLS, by DANA BURNET    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Scarce had they brought the bodies down
Last Line: To lock his doors again.
Subject(s): Child Labor; New York City; Social Protest; Manhattan; New York, New York; The Big Apple


A BEAUTIFUL YOUNG NYMPH GOING TO BED, by JONATHAN SWIFT    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Corinna, pride of drury-lane, / for whom no shepherd sighs in vain
Last Line: Who sees, will spew; who smells, be poisoned.
Subject(s): Prostitution; Social Protest; Harlots; Whores; Brothels


A MESSAGE OF PEACE, by JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: There was once a pirate, greedy and bold
Last Line: A pious example of christian peace!
Subject(s): Brotherhood; Christianity; Hypocrisy; Pacifism; Peace; Social Protest; War; Peace Movements


A PATRIOT I, by JEAN LEWIS MORRIS    Poem Text                    
First Line: A patriot I! This is my cry
Last Line: I'm a munition maker.
Subject(s): Arms & Armor; Patriotism; Selfishness; Social Protest; United States; War; America


A POEM TO DELIGHT MY FRIENDS WHO LAUGH AT SCIENCE-FICTION, by EDWIN ROLFE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: That was the year / the small birds in their frail and delicate battalions
Alternate Author Name(s): Fishman, Solomon
Subject(s): Social Protest


A SONG FOR MANY MOVEMENTS, by AUDRE LORDE    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis         Recitation by Author     Poet's Biography
First Line: Nobody wants to die on the way
Alternate Author Name(s): Adisa-warrior, Gamba
Subject(s): Social Protest


A VOICE FROM THE SWEAT-SHOPS (A HYMN WITH RESPONSES), by LOUIS UNTERMEYER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Praise god from whom all blessings / flow
Last Line: When will he make it plain?
Alternate Author Name(s): Lewis, Michael
Subject(s): Revivals; Social Protest; Speech; Voices; Religious Revivals; Oratory; Orators


ABOVE THE BATTLE'S FRONT, by NICHOLAS VACHEL LINDSAY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Oh foolish people, and without understanding
Last Line: Thorn-crowned above the water and the land.
Alternate Author Name(s): Lindsay, Vachel
Subject(s): Buddhism; Evil; Francis Assisi, Saint (1181-1226); Hate; Jesus Christ; John The Baptist, Saint (1st Century); Saints; Social Protest; Tolstoy, Leo (1828-1910); War; Buddha; Buddhists


ABRAHAM LINCOLN WALKS AT MIDNIGHT, by NICHOLAS VACHEL LINDSAY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It is portentous, and a thing of state
Last Line: That he may sleep upon his hill again?
Alternate Author Name(s): Lindsay, Vachel
Subject(s): Injustice; Lincoln, Abraham (1809-1865); Patriotism; Peace; Presidents, United States; Social Protest; World War I - United States


ABYSS, by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: No worst, there is none. Pitched past pitch of grief
Last Line: Life death does end and each day dies with sleep.
Variant Title(s): "the Terrible Sonnets: 2;""no Worst, There Is More, Pitched Past Pitch Of Grief"";
Subject(s): Death; Despair; Grief; Religion; Social Protest; Dead, The; Sorrow; Sadness; Theology


AGAIN AT WALDHEIM, by KENNETH REXROTH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: How heavy the heart is now, and every heart
Subject(s): Death; Social Protest; Dead, The


AGAIN AT WALDHEIM, by KENNETH REXROTH    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: How heavy the heart is now, and every heart
Last Line: Coalition of the blood of men
Subject(s): Death; Social Protest


AGAIN THEY SURROUND THEE, by WALT WHITMAN    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Of olden time, when it came to pass
Last Line: And still iscariot plies his trade
Subject(s): Justice; Social Protest


AIN'T GOT NO HOME IN THIS WORLD ANYMORE, by WOODY GUTHRIE    Poem Source                    
First Line: I ain't got no home
Last Line: And I ain't got no home in this world anymore
Subject(s): Homeless; Social Protest


ALL LIFE IN A LIFE, by EDGAR LEE MASTERS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: His father had a large family
Subject(s): Family Life; City & Town Life; Wealth; Social Protest; Capital Punishment; Conduct Of Life; Relatives; Riches; Fortunes; Hanging; Executions; Death Penalty


AMERICAN PRIMITIVE, by WILLIAM JAY SMITH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Look at him there in his stovepipe hat
Subject(s): Men; Social Protest


AMERICAN PRIMITIVE, by WILLIAM JAY SMITH    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Look at him there in his stovepipe hat
Last Line: And I love my daddy like he loves his dollar
Subject(s): Men; Social Protest


AMERICANS!, by PHILIP FRENEAU    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Left to himself, wherever man is found
Last Line: Speak - for you must - you have no hour to lose
Subject(s): Social Protest


AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CLASS ROOM IN A SLUM, by STEPHEN SPENDER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Far far from gusty waves, these children's faces
Alternate Author Name(s): Spender, Stephen (harold), Sir
Subject(s): Children; Schools; Slums; Social Protest; Childhood; Students; Tenements


AN EX-SERVICEMAN MAKES A VOW, by VINCENT GODFREY BURNS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: War is a way the statesmen play
Last Line: Our world may have peace! Amen.
Subject(s): Brotherhood; Death; God; Murder; Prayer; Social Protest; Soldiers; Veterans; War; Dead, The


ANCIENT MUSIC, by EZRA POUND    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Winter is icummen in
Last Line: Found under the latin words of a very ancient canon.
Subject(s): Hate; Social Protest


AND WHAT SHALL YOU SAY?, by JOSEPH SEAMON COTTER JR.    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Brother, come! / and let us go unto our god
Last Line: And, brother, what shall you say?
Subject(s): African Americans; Brotherhood; God; Religion; Social Protest; Negroes; American Blacks; Theology


ANGEL ON THE LAKE SHORE, by ALES DEBELJAK    Poem Source                    
First Line: Frightened laughter on the faces of the caryatids. A captain
Last Line: Destroying the seed that might shoot up from a common pain
Subject(s): Marriage; Social Protest; Yugoslavia


ANSWER WORLD!, by ANGELA MORGAN    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Yes, I believe in armies
Last Line: "here am I! Here am I!"
Subject(s): Army - United States; Injustice; Justice; Nations; Problems; Social Protest; War


APHRODITE'S IDENTITY CRISIS, by TENAYA DARLINGTON    Poem Source                    
First Line: Love is greek to me now
Last Line: Sending static each to each?
Subject(s): Computers; Courtship; Life, Modern; Social Protest


APPLEBAUM'S SUNDAY, by ABRAHAM B. MAGIL    Poem Source                    
First Line: Applebaum's sunday is a thing of cautions and carpet-slippers
Last Line: In a millon %power
Subject(s): Poverty; Social Protest


ARE YOU NOW OR HAVE YOU EVER BEEN, by EDWIN ROLFE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I admit it: there was a moment of pity
Alternate Author Name(s): Fishman, Solomon
Subject(s): Social Protest


ARE YOU NOW OR HAVE YOU EVER BEEN, by EDWIN ROLFE    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I admit it: there was a moment of pity
Last Line: A fleeting childhood picture of my great grandfather's face %he too was a refugee
Alternate Author Name(s): Fishman, Solomon
Subject(s): Social Protest


ASTRAEA, by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: O poet rare and old!
Last Line: As now in heaven!
Subject(s): Jonson, Ben (1572-1637); Millenium; Poetry & Poets; Social Protest


ASYLUM, by DAVID R. CLARK    Poem Source                    
First Line: I said, 'you're right!' at last they found %the perfect place for ezra pound
Last Line: Whatever drums our eardrums beat - %poetry, insanely sweet
Subject(s): Poetry And Poets; Pound, Ezra (1885-1972); Social Protest


AT CARCASSONNE, by WINFRED ERNEST GARRISON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Down the valleys of languedoc
Last Line: In my children's time may there be no war.
Subject(s): Carcassonne, France; Social Protest; Soldiers; War


AT HALF-MAST, by THOMAS CURTIS CLARK    Poem Text                    
First Line: Fly the flag at half-mast
Last Line: Till the day breaks again.
Subject(s): Death; Flags - United States; Military; Social Protest; Veterans Day; War; Dead, The; American Flag


AT THE LAST, by ANNE LIFSCHUTZ    Poem Source                    
First Line: What was the color of the smoke %from ethel rosenberg's head?
Last Line: In buchenwald, dachau
Subject(s): Rosenberg Case; Social Protest


AWARD (A GOLD WATCH TO THE FBI MAN WHO HAS FOLLOWED ME), by RAY DUREM    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Well, old spy
Subject(s): African Americans; Federal Bureau Of Investigation; Social Protest; Negroes; American Blacks; Fbi


AWARD (A GOLD WATCH TO THE FBI MAN WHO HAS FOLLOWED ME), by RAY DUREM    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Well, old spy
Last Line: But she was my daughter, only three, %who had to pee
Subject(s): African Americans; Federal Bureau Of Investigation; Social Protest


B-52'S, by ARNOLD KENSETH    Poem Source                    
First Line: Against summer, the leaf-lovely wide and lively trees
Last Line: They lean over and touch the rose dead
Subject(s): June; Social Protest


BALLAD ON THE TAXES, by EDWARD WARD    Poem Source                    
First Line: Good people, what, will you of all be bereft
Last Line: Why should we, why should we be kept in the dark?
Subject(s): Social Protest


BANTY TIM, by JOHN MILTON HAY    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I reckon I git your drift, gents
Last Line: Or my name's not tilmon joy!
Subject(s): African Americans; Social Protest; Negroes; American Blacks


BECAUSE HE WAS A MAN, by JOHN PIERPONT    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Why has that friend of man and god
Last Line: Or he'll have risen
Subject(s): Justice; Social Protest


BEFORE THE JUDGE (LOUIS LINGG: CHICAGO, 1886), by DAVID EDELSHTADT    Poem Source                    
First Line: Once, great of heart and great in soul
Last Line: The poison-cup of socrates
Subject(s): Chicago; Haymarket Square Riot; Social Protest


BEFORE THE STORM, by ALES DEBELJAK    Poem Source                    
First Line: The russian hound behind the door has stopped barking. Ice floes
Last Line: Stands before it, weeping. Perhaps her only child is just asleep
Subject(s): Death; Social Protest; Yugoslavia


BEGINNING OF A LONG POEM ON WHY I BURNED THE CITY, by LAURENCE BENFORD    Poem Source                    
First Line: My city slept %through my growing up in hate
Last Line: And I went off to college %with a gasoline can
Subject(s): African Americans; Social Protest


BEHOLD THE SEA, SELS., by AARON KURTZ    Poem Source                    
First Line: They got you last night. %I saw you clubbed
Last Line: To our brother, singing to %our might
Subject(s): Social Protest


BELLIES, by JIM WATERS    Poem Source                    
First Line: At washington, %I saw a bass-drum belly
Last Line: Of, by and for the bass-drum bellies of the rich
Subject(s): Poverty; Social Protest


BELLS FOR JOHN WHITESIDE'S DAUGHTER, by JOHN CROWE RANSOM    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis         Recitation     Poet's Biography
First Line: There was such speed in her little body
Last Line: Lying so primly propped.
Subject(s): Daughters; Death - Children; Fathers & Daughters; Funerals; Social Protest; Death - Babies; Burials


BEREFT, by JAMES OPPENHEIM    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Who can measure the agony of man?
Last Line: A fleck of shadow on immensity.
Subject(s): Social Protest


BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME, by RICHARD WRIGHT    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: And one morning while in the woods I stumbled suddenly upon the thing
Subject(s): Lynching; Social Protest


BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME, by RICHARD WRIGHT    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: And one morning while in the woods I stumbled suddenly upon the thing
Last Line: Now I am dry bones and my face a stony skull staring in yellow surprise at the sun
Subject(s): Lynching; Social Protest


BIRMINGHAM 1963, by RAYMOND RICHARD PATTERSON    Poem Source                    
First Line: Sunday morning and her mother's hands
Last Line: Alone amid the rubble, amid the people %who perish, being innocent
Alternate Author Name(s): Patterson, Ray
Subject(s): African Americans; Birmingham, Alabama; Social Protest


BLACK HAWK, SELS., by ELBERT H. SMITH                       
Subject(s): Social Protest


BLIND, by JUNE RICHARDSON LUCAS    Poem Text                    
First Line: He saw the noonday sun
Last Line: He did not know that he was blind!
Subject(s): Blindness; Social Protest; Vision; World War I; Visually Handicapped; First World War


BLOOD OF COLORADO MINERS, by SARAH MENEFEE    Poem Source                    
Last Line: On the boardroom walls of chase manhattan bank
Subject(s): Capitalism; Politics; Rockefeller (family); Social Protest


BLUES FOR BESSIE, by MYRON O'HIGGINS    Poem Text                    
First Line: Let de peoples known (unnh) / what they did in dat southern town
Last Line: Wid de blood (lawd) a-streamin' down
Subject(s): African Americans - Women; Blues (music); Racism; Singing & Singers; Smith, Bessie (1894-1937); Social Protest; Racial Prejudice; Bigotry


BOMBING CASUALTIES IN SPAIN, by HERBERT READ    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Dolls' faces are rosier but these were children
Subject(s): Social Protest; Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)


BOMBING CASUALTIES IN SPAIN, by HERBERT READ    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Dolls' faces are rosier but these were children
Last Line: After a night of riot %extinct in the dry morning air
Subject(s): Social Protest; Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)


BORDERLINE BALLAD, by RICHARD WEBER    Poem Source                    
First Line: Bring out all the set ideas
Last Line: The whole lot's back in quantity
Subject(s): Social Protest


BREAD AND ROSES, by JAMES OPPENHEIM    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: As we come marching, marching, in the
Last Line: But a sharing of life's glories: bread and roses, bread and roses!
Subject(s): Justice; Labor Unions; Social Protest; Strikes; Labor Disputes; Lockouts


BREED, WOMEN, BREED, by LUCIA TRENT    Poem Text                    
First Line: Breed, little mothers
Last Line: Breed, women, breed!
Alternate Author Name(s): Cheyney, Mrs. Ralph; Glass, Mrs. Ernest
Subject(s): Social Protest; Women; Women's Rights; Feminism


BURNIN' DRINK, by JANET HAMILTON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I tell a tale o' burnin' love
Last Line: Wi' bitter, burnin' hate.
Alternate Author Name(s): Hamilton, Janet Thompson
Subject(s): Alcoholism & Alcoholics; Hate; Love; Social Protest; Temperance; Drunkards; Alcohol Abuse; Prohibition


BUTTONS, by CARL SANDBURG    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I have been watching the war map slammed up for advertising
Last Line: Newspaper office where the freckle-faced young man is laughing to us?
Subject(s): Social Protest; World War I; First World War


CALIBAN IN THE COAL MINES, by LOUIS UNTERMEYER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: God, we don't like to complain
Last Line: Fling us a handful of stars!
Alternate Author Name(s): Lewis, Michael
Subject(s): Mines & Miners; Religion; Social Protest; Theology


CALVARY, by JOHN ROTHSCHILD    Poem Text                    
First Line: Acres of crosses - wooden crosses - bleak
Last Line: Of folded arms in the menacing hour?
Subject(s): Calvary; Crosses; Crucifixion; Death; Social Protest; Soldiers; War; Jesus Christ - Crucifixion; Dead, The


CAMPAIGN THUNDER, by WALT MASON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: My friends, when I'm elected, the people
Last Line: Elected a change will be detected—no man will have to work!
Subject(s): Elections; Social Protest; Tyranny & Tyrants; Voting; Voters; Suffrage


CASEY JONES, THE UNION SCAB, by JOE HILL    Poem Source                    
First Line: The workers on the s.P. Line to strike sent out a call
Last Line: That's what you get for scabbing on the s.P. Line
Alternate Author Name(s): Hillstrom, Joesph; Hagglund, Joel
Subject(s): Labor Unions; Social Protest; Strikes


CASSANDRA, by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I heard one who said: verily
Last Line: Moved on. None heeded, and few heard.
Subject(s): Cassandra (mythology); Freedom; Social Protest; Liberty


CHANNEL FIRING, by THOMAS HARDY    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: That night your great guns, unawares
Last Line: And camelot, and starlit stonehenge.
Subject(s): Death; Guns; Social Protest; World War I; Dead, The; First World War


CHIEF RED JACKET ADDRESSSES A MISSIONARY, by RED JACKET    Poem Source                    
First Line: Brother, listen to what we say. There was a time
Last Line: We only want to enjoy our own
Subject(s): Native Americans; Social Protest


CHILD LABOR, by CHARLOTTE PERKINS STETSON GILMAN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: No fledgling feeds the fatherbird
Last Line: That lives upon its young!
Alternate Author Name(s): Stetson, Charlotte Perkins
Subject(s): Child Labor; Social Protest


CHRIST AT EIGHT, by ERNEST HARTSOCK    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Little boy, gentle boy
Last Line: To slay them all in battle!
Subject(s): Jesus Christ; Social Protest; Soldiers; War; Youth


CHRISTMAS, 1917, by BRENT DOW ALLINSON    Poem Text                    
First Line: Is it a mocking jest that christmas bells
Last Line: Let nations pass so man himself be free.
Subject(s): Christmas; Freedom; Hate; Humanity; Social Protest; War; Nativity, The; Liberty


CHRISTUS; A MYSTERY: 3. THE NEW ENGLAND TRAGEDIES: JOHN ENDICOTT, by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: To-night we strive to read, as we may best
Last Line: Courageous heart! Forever rest in peace
Variant Title(s): Christus: 3. The New England Tragedies: John Endicot
Subject(s): Endicott, John (1588-1655); Social Protest


CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE, SELS., by HENRY DAVID THOREAU            Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Social Protest


CLAREL, SELS., by HERMAN MELVILLE            Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Social Protest


CLASS POEM, SELS., by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL            Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Social Protest


CLERICAL OPPRESSORS, by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Just god! And these are they
Last Line: As in their home above.
Subject(s): Clergy; Slavery; Social Protest; United States - History; Priests; Rabbis; Ministers; Bishops; Serfs


CLIMBING SLEEPING BEAUTY, by JUDITH MCDANIEL    Poem Source                    
First Line: Today is its own festival of light
Last Line: No death pure resurrection %a festival of light
Subject(s): Peace; Social Protest


COLLECTION, by ERNEST HOWARD CROSBY    Poem Source                    
First Line: I passed the plate in church
Last Line: Tables of the money-changers, waiting to be overturned
Subject(s): Justice; Poverty; Social Protest


COLOR IT GOLD, by SYLVIA K. POLIKOFF    Poem Source                    
First Line: They are killing the geese
Last Line: The lust and greed of their captors
Subject(s): Greed; Social Protest


COLUMBIAD, SELS., by JOEL BARLOW            Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Social Protest


CONDEMNATION, by THICH NHAT-HANH    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis            
First Line: Listen to this: %yesterday six vietcong came through my village
Last Line: If we kill men, what brothers will we have left? %with whom shall we live then?
Subject(s): Social Protest


CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY: BOOK 2, METRUM 5, by ANICIUS MANLIUS SEVERINUS BOETHIUS    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Happy that first white age when we %lived by the earth's mere charity
Last Line: That sought out pearls, and dived to find %such precious perils for mankind
Subject(s): Social Protest


COUNTING THE MAD, by DONALD JUSTICE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis         Recitation     Poet's Biography
First Line: This one was put in a jacket
Subject(s): Depression, Mental; Humanity; Insanity; Social Protest; Mentally Depressed; Mental Distress; Madness; Mental Illness


COUNTING THE MAD, by DONALD JUSTICE    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: This one was put in a jacket
Last Line: And cried and cried no no no no %all day long
Subject(s): Depression, Mental; Humanity; Insanity; Social Protest


CREDO, by EUGENE VICTOR DEBS    Poem Source                    
First Line: While there is a lower class, I am in it
Last Line: While there is a soul in jail, I am not free
Subject(s): Social Protest; Socialism


CRIME, by JAMES OPPENHEIM    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Ha! You count it horrible that the murder was / committed
Last Line: Yes, it is you.
Subject(s): Murder; Social Protest


DANGEROUS MEMORY, by JUDITH MCDANIEL    Poem Source                    
First Line: My body knew the sound of a gun
Last Line: To dream as if we could imagine a joyful tomorrow
Subject(s): Peace; Social Protest


DEBS, by JAMES OPPENHEIM    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Four great lovers arose in america
Last Line: Living great loved through whom america lives
Subject(s): Debs, Eugene V. (1855-1926); Social Protest


DEDICATION, by FRANCIS REGINALD SCOTT    Poem Text                    
First Line: From those condemned to labour
Last Line: Nor any peace for spending.
Alternate Author Name(s): Scott, F. R.
Subject(s): Labor & Laborers; Money; Social Classes; Social Protest; Work; Workers; Caste


DIRGE WITHOUT MUSIC, by EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground
Alternate Author Name(s): Boyd, Nancy; Boissevain, Eugen, Mrs.
Subject(s): Death; Life Change Events; Love; Social Protest; Dead, The


DIRGE WITHOUT MUSIC, by EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground
Last Line: I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned
Alternate Author Name(s): Boyd, Nancy; Boissevain, Eugen, Mrs.
Subject(s): Death; Life Change Events; Love; Social Protest


DNA SHOWS THAT I'M THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER, by JAMES HARRISON    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Last Line: Only politicians shitting out of their mouths
Alternate Author Name(s): Harrison, Jim
Subject(s): Nature; Politics; Social Protest; Unknown Soldier


DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT, by DYLAN THOMAS    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Last Line: Rage, rage against the dying of the light
Subject(s): Death; Fathers; Hate; Mourning; Old Age; Social Protest; Time


DOLOR, by THEODORE ROETHKE    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis         Recitation     Poet's Biography
First Line: I have known the inexorable sadness of pencils
Variant Title(s): Dolour
Subject(s): Depression, Mental; Grief; Office Employees; Social Protest; Mentally Depressed; Mental Distress; Sorrow; Sadness; Clerks


DOLOR, by THEODORE ROETHKE    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I have known the inexorable sadness of pencils
Last Line: Dropping a fine film on nails and delicate eyebrows, %glazing the pale hair, the duplicate grey stan
Variant Title(s): Dolou
Subject(s): Depression, Mental; Grief; Office Employees; Social Protest


DOVER BEACH, by MATTHEW ARNOLD    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The sea is calm to-night
Last Line: Where ignorant armies clash by night.
Subject(s): Desire; Doubt; Dover, England; England; Faith; Love; Love - Marital; Poetry & Poets; Religion; Sea; Seashore; Social Protest; Time; War; Skepticism; English; Belief; Creed; Wedded Love; Marriage - Love; Theology; Ocean; Beach; Coast; Shore


DR. SIGMUND FREUD DISCOVERS THE SEA SHELL, by ARCHIBALD MACLEISH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Science, that simple saint, cannot be bothered
Alternate Author Name(s): Fleming, Archibald
Subject(s): Social Protest


DR. SIGMUND FREUD DISCOVERS THE SEA SHELL, by ARCHIBALD MACLEISH    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Science, that simple saint, cannot be bothered
Last Line: What surge is this whose question never ceases?
Alternate Author Name(s): Fleming, Archibald
Subject(s): Social Protest


DULCE ET DECORUM EST, by WILFRED OWEN    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis         Recitation     Poet's Biography
First Line: Bent double, like old beggars under sacks
Last Line: Pro patria mori.
Subject(s): Chemical Warfare; Hate; Men; Patriotism; Social Protest; Soldiers; Soldiers' Writings; World War I; First World War


DUSK OF THE GODS, SELS., by SOL FUNAROFF                       
Subject(s): Social Protest


ECLOGUE: THE 'LOTMENTS, by WILLIAM BARNES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Zoo you be in your groun' then, I do zee
Last Line: If I could get a little patch o' ground.
Subject(s): Duty; Farm Life; Labor & Laborers; Property; Social Protest; Spring; Agriculture; Farmers; Work; Workers; Possessions


ECLOGUE: THE COMMON A-TOOK IN, by WILLIAM BARNES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Good morn t'ye, john. How b'ye? How b'ye?
Last Line: Or I must goo to workhouse, I do fear.
Subject(s): Autumn; Farm Life; Fences; Poverty; Property; Seasons; Social Protest; Fall; Agriculture; Farmers; Possessions


ECLOGUE: THE TIMES, by WILLIAM BARNES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Well, tom, how be'st? Zoo thou'st a-got thy neame
Last Line: You'll goo vor wool, an' then come hwome a-sheär'd.
Subject(s): Birds; Crows; Economics; Fables; Farm Life; Labor & Laborers; Pigs; Politics & Government; Social Protest; Wages; Allegories; Agriculture; Farmers; Work; Workers; Boars; Hogs; Salaries


EIGHTEENTH PRESIDENCY, SELS., by WALT WHITMAN            Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Social Protest


ELEGIAC STATEMENT FOR TWO HUMAN BEINGS NAMED ROSENBERG, by LESLIE WOOLF HEDLEY    Poem Source                    
First Line: There are so many deaths to lament
Last Line: That their murder brings my own %several steps closer
Subject(s): Rosenberg Case; Social Protest


ELEGY (FOR 'MOVE' AND PHILADELPHIA), by SONIA SANCHEZ    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Philadelphia / a disguised southern city
Subject(s): Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Social Protest


ELEGY (FOR 'MOVE' AND PHILADELPHIA), by SONIA SANCHEZ    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Philadelphia %a disguised southern city
Last Line: Lying in wait. For honor and peace. %one day
Subject(s): Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Social Protest


ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CLASS ROOM IN A SLUM, by STEPHEN SPENDER    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Far far from gusty waves, these children's faces
Last Line: The history theirs whose language is the sun
Alternate Author Name(s): Spender, Stephen (harold), Sir
Subject(s): Children; Schools; Slums; Social Protest


END OF THE WORLD, by JEREMIAH    Poem Source                    
First Line: My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain
Last Line: Before the lord, before his fierce anger
Subject(s): Social Protest


ENOUGH, by WILLIAM MULLINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: You speak with hell upon your tongue
Last Line: With aisles of worthless cereals and %ancient ten year old traditions
Subject(s): Social Protest


EVANGELINE; A TALE OF ACADIE, by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks
Last Line: Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest.
Subject(s): Acadia; Love; Mothers; Social Protest; United States - History


EXAMINER, by FRANCIS REGINALD SCOTT    Poem Source                    
First Line: The routine trickery of the examination
Last Line: The professional mowers drone, clipping the inch-high green
Alternate Author Name(s): Scott, F. R.
Subject(s): Social Protest


EXILED FROM THE LIGHT, by SEBASTIAN SALAZAR BONDY    Poem Source                    
First Line: The president caressed the mane of his favorite horse
Last Line: Poor peruvians exiled from the light
Subject(s): Assassination; Exiles; Grief; Peru; Social Protest


FAREWELL OF A VIRGINIA SLAVE MOTHER TO HER DAUGHTERS SOLD INTO BONDAGE, by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Gone, gone - sold and gone
Last Line: Woe is me, my stolen daughters!
Subject(s): Farewell; Mothers; Slavery; Social Protest; Parting; Serfs


FAREWELL, MY NATION! FAREWELL, BLACK HAWK, by BLACK HAWK    Poem Source                    
First Line: When my last resources were exhausted
Last Line: That a brave war chief would prefer death to dishonor
Subject(s): Native Americans; Social Protest


FEEDING THE LIONS, by NORMAN JORDAN    Poem Source                    
First Line: They come into %our neighborhood
Last Line: And get back %before dark
Subject(s): Social Protest; Social Workers; Welfare


FIRST THEY SLAUGHTERED THE ANGELS, by LENORE KANDEL    Poem Source                    
Last Line: Not even us
Subject(s): Social Protest


FISH PEDDLER AND COBBLER, by KENNETH REXROTH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Always for thirty years now
Last Line: Savage eyed whores paraded the streets
Subject(s): Change; Past; Progress; Social Protest; United States; America


FISH PEDDLER AND COBBLER, by KENNETH REXROTH    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Always for thirty years now
Last Line: Savage eyed whores paraded the street
Subject(s): Change; Past; Progress; Social Protest; United States


FLOWER-FED BUFFALOES OF THE SPRING, by NICHOLAS VACHEL LINDSAY    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Last Line: With the pawnees, lying low %lying low
Alternate Author Name(s): Lindsay, Vachel
Subject(s): Americans; Buffaloes; Railroads; Social Protest; United States


FOR A SISTER, by ADRIENNE CECILE RICH    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I trust none of them. Only my existence
Last Line: To light the stove, get out the typewriter and begin again. Your story
Subject(s): Russia; Social Protest


FOR RANDOLPH BOURNE, by JAMES OPPENHEIM    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: We wind wreaths of holly
Subject(s): Bourne, Randolph Silliman (1886-1918); Critics And Criticism; Social Protest


FOR THE LOST GENERATION, by GALWAY KINNELL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Oddities composed the sum of the news
Subject(s): Social Protest


FOR THE LOST GENERATION, by GALWAY KINNELL    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Oddities composed the sum of the news
Last Line: (o hiroshima, o jews) - %no generation was so gay as the lost
Subject(s): Social Protest


FREEDOM FOR ITALY: 1867, by JANET HAMILTON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: He is the freeman whom the truth makes free
Last Line: Perhaps not now, but when and how he will!
Alternate Author Name(s): Hamilton, Janet Thompson
Subject(s): Freedom; Garibaldi, Giuseppe (1807-1882); Italy; Patriotism; Popes; Social Protest; Liberty; Italians; Papacy


FROM BIG MOUNTAIN, by JUDITH MCDANIEL    Poem Source                    
First Line: If you believed the land is holy
Last Line: How much time is left to answer?
Subject(s): Peace; Social Protest


FROM THE EARTH, A CRY, by JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: O christ! And o christ! In thy name the law!
Last Line: God purifies slowly by peace, but urgently by fire.
Subject(s): French Revolution (1848); Hate; Jesus Christ; Social Protest; War; February Revolution


FROM THE PARIS COMMUNE TO THE KRONSTADT REBELLION, by KENNETH REXROTH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Remember now there were others before this
Subject(s): Death; Paris, France; Revolutions; Social Protest; Dead, The


FROM THE PARIS COMMUNE TO THE KRONSTADT REBELLION, by KENNETH REXROTH    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Remember now there were others before this
Last Line: And people remembering in the future
Subject(s): Death; Paris, France; Revolutions; Social Protest


FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW, by ANN PRESTON    Poem Source                    
First Line: The land whose cradle freedom rocked, the nation of the brave
Last Line: Till god himself forsakes his world, this law shall not prevail
Subject(s): Slavery; Social Protest


GHOSTS OF CONQUEST, by ALBERT EDWARD CLEMENTS    Poem Text                    
First Line: We shall break the dry crust of this stale earth, batter it down to ... Despair
Last Line: Glory on ghosts of conquest for a year and a day!
Subject(s): Ghosts; Social Protest; Soldiers; Supernatural; War


GIVE ME LIBERTY, by JUDITH MCDANIEL    Poem Source                    
First Line: It's liberty weekend
Last Line: Will dwell in the shadow %of hell's kitchen tonight
Subject(s): Peace; Social Protest


GIVE US THE SIGN!, by WILLIAM EDWARD BURGHARDT DU BOIS    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: From lust of body and lust of blood
Last Line: Keep not thou silence, o god!
Alternate Author Name(s): Du Bois, W. E. B.
Subject(s): African Americans; Social Protest


GIVE WAY, by DONALD FINKEL    Poem Source                    
First Line: Give way to the man coming at you
Last Line: The man coming at you may be armed
Subject(s): Social Protest


GLOVES, by MARGARET RANDALL    Poem Source                    
First Line: Yes we did march around somewhere and yes it was cold
Last Line: The gloves are still there, in the cold, %passing from hand to hand
Subject(s): Gloves; New York City; Politics; Social Protest


GOD TO HUNGRY CHILD, by JAMES LANGSTON HUGHES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Hungry child, %I didn't make this world for you
Last Line: Not for you, %hungry child
Alternate Author Name(s): Hughes, Langston
Subject(s): African Americans; Poverty; Social Protest


GOOD MANNERS, by WASHINGTON DELGADO    Poem Source                    
First Line: It's dangerous to walk
Last Line: With a name in your lips
Subject(s): Depressions, Economic; Politics; Social Protest


GOVERNOR EVERETT RECEIVING THE INDIAN CHIEFS, 1837, SELS., by SARAH MARGARET FULLER    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Shorn of his strength, the samson now must sue
Last Line: Might makes right here, but god and time are just
Alternate Author Name(s): Fuller, Margaret; Ossoli, Marchioness; Ossoli, Margaret Fuller
Subject(s): Native Americans; Social Protest


GREENFIELD HILL, SELS., by TIMOTHY DWIGHT            Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Social Protest


GUERRILLA HANDBOOK, by AMIRI BARAKA    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In the palm
Last Line: We must convince the living %that the dead %cannot sing
Alternate Author Name(s): Jones, Leroi
Subject(s): Social Protest


HANDS OF LIBERTY, by M. COLLEEN OWEN    Poem Source                    
First Line: They came in a manner uniquely their own
Last Line: As her arms gave way in the darkness
Subject(s): Social Protest; Statue Of Liberty; U.s. - Immigration And Emigration


HAP, by THOMAS HARDY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: If but some vengeful god would call to me
Last Line: Blisses about my pilgrimage as pain.
Subject(s): Fate; Social Protest; Destiny


HAVING, by ISIDOR SCHNEIDER    Poem Source                    
First Line: Having is an equation; the terms
Last Line: They coil a rope around you
Subject(s): Poverty; Social Protest


HE GLIMPSES A NOBLER VISION, by MILLER WILLIAMS    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: He worried every morning about the earth [or, bomb]
Last Line: And he was back again, with all he could bear
Subject(s): Asner, Ed (b. 1929); Social Protest


HEAR, O RICHMOND! AND GIVE EAR, O CAROLINA!, by THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: If the attack on the court house has no greater effect
Last Line: Henceforth worcester is canada to the slave
Subject(s): Slavery; Social Protest


HELL A LA MODE, by VINCENT GODFREY BURNS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Zero hour! / advance!
Last Line: The silence of wreckage and ruin and death!
Subject(s): Death; Hell; Military; Social Protest; Soldiers; War; Dead, The


HELPFUL VOCABULARY, by JUDITH MCDANIEL    Poem Source                    
First Line: Where's the toilet?
Last Line: I have a north american stomach %with permission %siento
Subject(s): Peace; Social Protest


HEROES OF WAR AND PEACE, by ELLA WHEELER WILCOX    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Ay, that is a story that takes one's breath
Last Line: For the martyrs of peace and the victims of wrong?
Alternate Author Name(s): Wilson, Robert, Mrs.
Subject(s): Poverty; Social Protest


HIROSHIMA, by MARGARET ROCKWELL    Poem Source                    
First Line: A dream of waking in some sleeper's eye
Last Line: So to reveal in rage the whisper of %the moment that would force the world to love
Subject(s): Social Protest


HIROSHIMA LULLABY, by JOSEPH LANGLAND    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Sadako, you have gone
Last Line: We fold your paper cranes
Subject(s): Social Protest


HOLY SONNET: 10, by JOHN DONNE    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Last Line: And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.
Variant Title(s): "sonnet On Death;elegie;death Rebuked;""death Be Not Proud, Though Some Have Called Thee"";
Subject(s): Catholics; Death; Freedom; Immortality; Religion; Social Protest; Victory; Roman Catholics; Catholicism; Dead, The; Liberty; Theology


HOW LONG?, by FERNER R. NUHN    Poem Text                    
First Line: How long this vain, blind lust of power
Last Line: Replace their country's battle song?
Subject(s): Hate; Patriotism; Social Protest; War


HOW THEY CAME FROM THE BLUE SNOWS, by ARNOLD KENSETH    Poem Source                    
Last Line: And the flight of birds from the summer hollow %we do not understand, we do not follow
Subject(s): Social Protest


I AM A RED SLOGAN, by RICHARD WRIGHT    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
Last Line: All power to the soviets!
Subject(s): Communism; Social Protest


I CHING, by JUDITH MCDANIEL    Poem Source                    
First Line: Clouds move %on the silent %river mirror
Last Line: The inevitable %downward pull
Subject(s): Peace; Social Protest


I SIT AND LOOK OUT, by WALT WHITMAN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I sit and look out upon all the sorrows of the world, and upon all oppression
Last Line: See, hear, and am silent.
Subject(s): Evil; Social Protest


I WANT YOU WOMEN UP NORTH TO KNOW, by TILLIE LERNER OLSEN    Poem Source         Poet Analysis            
Last Line: I swear it won't
Subject(s): Social Protest; Women


I'M WITH STUPID, by PETER JOHNSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: There's a thumbprint of lamb's blood
Subject(s): Ignorance; Social Protest; Dullness; Stupdity


I'M WITH STUPID, by PETER JOHNSON    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: There's a thumbprint of lamb's blood
Last Line: Falling from the sky
Subject(s): Ignorance; Social Protest


ICHABOD, by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: So fallen! So lost! The light withdrawn / which one he wore!
Last Line: And hide the shame!
Subject(s): Slavery; Social Protest; Webster, Daniel (1782-1852); Serfs


IF IT COMES TO THIS, by JAMES OPPENHEIM    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Bitter, bitter
Last Line: Or are you an empty word to cover our feeble spirits?
Subject(s): Poverty; Social Protest; Wealth; Riches; Fortunes


IF WE MUST DIE, by CLAUDE MCKAY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Last Line: Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!
Alternate Author Name(s): Edwards, Eli
Subject(s): African Americans; Courage; Death; Honor; Social Protest; World War I; Negroes; American Blacks; Valor; Bravery; Dead, The; First World War


IF YOUR HANDS BE FULL OF BLOOD, by PETER FOLGER    Poem Source                    
First Line: Of later time there had been some
Last Line: All this will never do
Subject(s): Justice; Social Protest


ILOPANGO, by JUDITH MCDANIEL    Poem Source                    
First Line: Still %the stories
Last Line: But this much love %I can barely imagine
Subject(s): Peace; Social Protest


IN A SURREALIST YEAR, by LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Last Line: Full of our ashes %floated by
Subject(s): Social Protest


IN AND OUT OF CHURCH, by LOUISA SARAH BEVINGTON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Dogma-dealer, talking treason
Last Line: And more just.
Alternate Author Name(s): Leigh, Arbor; Guggenberger, Mrs. Ignatz; Bevington, L. S.
Subject(s): Churches; Social Protest; Cathedrals


IN FLANDERS, by JAMES NORMAN HALL    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Could you have seen them marching
Last Line: To see ten thousand fighting men.
Subject(s): Flanders, Belgium; Reality; Social Protest; Soldiers; War; World War I; First World War


IN GEORGETOWN; HOLIDAY INN, WASHINGTON, D.C., by HAYDEN CARRUTH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: This is not where the rich and famous pursue their lifestyles
Last Line: "melodiously at the door: ""are you all right, sir? Are you all right in there?"
Subject(s): Americans; Corruption In Politics & Government; Hotels; Politics; Social Protest; United States; Washington, D.c.; Inns; Innskeepers; Motels; Boarding Houses; Politicians; Political Poetry; America


IN MEMORIAM A.H.H.: 82, by ALFRED TENNYSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I wage not any feud with death
Last Line: We cannot hear each other speak.
Alternate Author Name(s): Tennyson, Lord Alfred; Tennyson, 1st Baron; Tennyson Of Aldworth And Farringford, Baron
Subject(s): Social Protest


IN NICARAGUA, by JUDITH MCDANIEL    Poem Source                    
First Line: I thought all of the children
Last Line: If you only expect to live thirty years
Subject(s): Peace; Social Protest


IN TAMPA YOU CAN SHOOT A MAN FOR THEFT, by CHARLES OWEN LAWSON    Poem Source                    
Last Line: In tampa you can shoot a man for theft
Subject(s): Crime And Criminals; Social Protest


IN THE MEANTIME, by LUCILLE CLIFTON    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The lord of loaves and fishes
Last Line: I am become death -- the destroyer of worlds
Subject(s): Bible; Death; Nuclear War; Religion; Social Protest


IN THE NAME OF GOD, by RALPH WALDO EMERSON    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The american presidemt and the cabinet
Last Line: The sweet omen of religion and liberty, %will stink to the world
Subject(s): Native Americans; Social Protest


IN THE SUBWAY, by LOUIS UNTERMEYER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Chaos is tamed and ordered as we ride
Last Line: Reading their papers calmly, leisurely.
Alternate Author Name(s): Lewis, Michael
Subject(s): Chaos; Insanity; Social Protest; Madness; Mental Illness


INCIDENT, by COUNTEE CULLEN    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Once riding in old baltimore
Subject(s): African Americans; Baltimore, Maryland; Racism; Social Protest; Negroes; American Blacks; Racial Prejudice; Bigotry


INCIDENT, by COUNTEE CULLEN    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Once riding in old baltimore
Last Line: Of all the things that happened there %that's all that I remember
Subject(s): African Americans; Baltimore, Maryland; Racism; Social Protest


INDIAN AND THE TROUT, by EUGENE FIELD    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The president at the break of day
Last Line: Turning the heads of the giddy trout
Subject(s): Native Americans; Social Protest


INDIAN'S RETORT, SELS., by JONES VERY    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The white man's soul, it thirsts for gain
Last Line: The white man steals, his is the name!
Subject(s): Native Americans; Social Protest


INSCRIPTION, by EDWARD WHARTON    Poem Source                    
First Line: I got two friends to help me set is up in the night
Last Line: For vengeance cry
Subject(s): Justice; Social Protest


INVOCATION, by S. A. DETHALL    Poem Text                    
First Line: Christ with the crown of thorns
Last Line: Send me your strength for a while.
Subject(s): Crucifixion; Hate; Jesus Christ; Pain; Prayer; Social Protest; War; Jesus Christ - Crucifixion; Suffering; Misery


IS IT TRUE?, by NORMAN ROSTEN    Poem Source                    
First Line: Does the poster lie?
Last Line: How do I collect what's mine!
Subject(s): Social Protest


IT IS NOT ENOUGH, by DAVID HENDERSON    Poem Source                    
First Line: It is not enough %to photograph the south vietnam premier
Last Line: Red china is not allowed in the league %unless she attacks
Subject(s): Social Protest


JAMES BALDWIN, by SAM CORNISH    Poem Source                    
First Line: Fire in the city and malcolm
Last Line: Out like a harlem full of anger %fire make me a world this time
Subject(s): African Americans; Baldwin, James (1924-1987); Social Protest; Writing And Writers


JOB, SELS., by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE                       
Subject(s): Animals; Courage; Death; Social Protest


JOE HILL, by ALFRED HAYES    Poem Source                    
First Line: I dreamed in saw joe hill last night
Last Line: I never died,' says he
Subject(s): Hill, Joe (1879-1915); Industrial Workers Of The World (i.w.w.); Labor Unions; Social Protest


JOE HILL LISTENS TO THE PRAYING, by KENNETH PATCHEN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Look at the steady rifles, joe
Last Line: To make songs with.
Subject(s): Communism; Hill, Joe (1879-1915); Labor Unions; Social Protest; Hillstrom, Joseph; Hagglund, Joel


JOHN CHRISTIAN, by WALTER HENDRICKS    Poem Text                    
First Line: John christian knew the bible page by page
Last Line: By killing christ and spilling human blood.
Subject(s): Bible; Christianity; Hypocrisy; Religion; Social Protest; Soldiers; War; Theology


KIDNAPPERS!, by JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: When anthony burns was taken down state street
Last Line: We are kidnappers and man-stealers still
Alternate Author Name(s): C., J. F.
Subject(s): Slavery; Social Protest


KING LEAR, SELS., by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE            Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Subject(s): England; Hate; Lear, King; Mothers; Social Protest


KIRKLAND LAKE, by JAMES WREFORD WATSON    Poem Text                    
First Line: Under the dark industrial sky
Last Line: They die for freedom that are free.
Alternate Author Name(s): Wreford, James
Subject(s): Freedom; Social Classes; Social Protest; Liberty; Caste


LA ESPERANZA, by JUDITH MCDANIEL    Poem Source                    
First Line: My children %he gold me and I could see
Last Line: My children are the decoration of my home
Subject(s): Peace; Social Protest


LAMENT, by ALEXANDER F. BERGMAN    Poem Source                    
First Line: In this time of the year when leaves fall
Last Line: The angel of death walks in the corridors, the many-handed stalks all night
Subject(s): Death; Social Protest


LAMENT, by EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Listen, children: / your father is dead
Last Line: I forget just why.
Alternate Author Name(s): Boyd, Nancy; Boissevain, Eugen, Mrs.
Subject(s): Lament; Poverty; Social Protest


LANDSCAPE NEAR A STEEL MILL, by HERSCHEL HORN    Poem Source                    
First Line: Over the books of bricks
Last Line: Crying: fools! Where is our bread?
Subject(s): Social Protest


LANDSCAPE WITH FIGURE, by NORMAN ROSTEN    Poem Source                    
First Line: Black boy, the night hides you
Last Line: Come on down, it's time
Subject(s): Lynching; Social Protest


LAST DAYS OF JOHN BROWN, SELS., by HENRY DAVID THOREAU            Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Social Protest


LAST WILL, by JOE HILL    Poem Source                    
First Line: My will is easy to decide
Last Line: Good luck to all of you
Alternate Author Name(s): Hillstrom, Joesph; Hagglund, Joel
Subject(s): Industrial Workers Of The World (i.w.w.); Labor Unions; Social Protest


LATE LATE, by GEORGE STARBUCK    Poem Source                    
First Line: Where tomahawks flash in the powwow
Last Line: Old glory dissolves into static, %the box is a box is a box
Subject(s): Social Protest


LEAVING HOME, by JUDITH MCDANIEL    Poem Source                    
First Line: I drove back up the road to home
Last Line: We can find the center of that ancient silent grove %or push open the door to a sacred place
Subject(s): Peace; Social Protest


LET US NOW PASSIONATELY REMEMBER, by EDWARD ESTLIN CUMMINGS    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My little darlings, let us now
Last Line: To %no
Alternate Author Name(s): Cummings, E. E.
Subject(s): Social Protest; War


LIBERTY FOR ALL, by WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: They tell me, liberty! That in thy name
Last Line: And, by a mighty hand, the oppressed he yet shall save!
Subject(s): Brotherhood; Fourth Of July; Slavery; Social Protest; Independence Day; Serfs


LINE OF AN AMERICAN POET, by REED WHITTEMORE    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: That american poet's future
Last Line: To eb just what the country had need of: %poems uniform, safe and sure
Subject(s): Social Protest


LINES FOR AN INTERMENT, by ARCHIBALD MACLEISH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Now it is fifteen years you have lain in the meadow
Alternate Author Name(s): Fleming, Archibald
Subject(s): Death; Social Protest; War; Dead, The


LINES FOR AN INTERMENT, by ARCHIBALD MACLEISH    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Now it is fifteen years you have lain in the meadow
Last Line: Now you are dead
Alternate Author Name(s): Fleming, Archibald
Subject(s): Death; Social Protest; War


LION AND O'REILLY, by RICHARD WEBER    Poem Source                    
First Line: Who'll rage against all government
Last Line: Splitting the board with a final hit
Subject(s): Social Protest


LONDON, 1802 (1), by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis         Recitation     Poet's Biography
First Line: O friend! I know not which way I must look
Last Line: And pure religion breathing household laws.
Variant Title(s): Written In London, September, 1802;the Times That Are;in London, Setpember 1802;london, 1802
Subject(s): London; Milton, John (1608-1674); Social Protest


LOVE AND YOUTH AND WAR, by DERRICK NORMAN LEHMER    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Love and youth to the war they sent
Last Line: When love and youth to the war have gone?
Subject(s): Hate; Love; Murder; Social Protest; Soldiers; War; World War I; Youth; First World War


LYNCHING, by SOLOMON BLOOMGARDEN    Poem Source                    
First Line: Father of my soul
Last Line: On the tree
Alternate Author Name(s): Yehoash
Subject(s): Lynching; Social Protest


M'FINGAL, SELS., by JOHN TRUMBULL            Poet Analysis            
Subject(s): American Revolution; Social Protest


MADE IN HEAVEN, by PETER PORTER    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: From heals and harrods come her lovely bridegrooms
Last Line: But at least I'm safe from everything but cancer - %the apotheosis of the young wife and mediocre da
Subject(s): Social Protest


MAKING CANNON IN BETHLEHEM, by VINCENT GODFREY BURNS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: It was long ago in bethlehem town
Last Line: The great word is love, the right plan is peace!
Subject(s): Arms & Armor; Bethlehem, Palestine; Jesus Christ; Peace; Social Protest; Violence; War; Weapons; Ammunition


MAKING IT SAFE FOR CHARLES, by JUDITH MCDANIEL    Poem Source                    
First Line: He stands on the picnic table across the fence
Last Line: Can we make a safe place for charles?
Subject(s): Peace; Social Protest


MAN, THE MAN-HUNTER, by CARL SANDBURG    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I saw man, the man-hater
Last Line: The -- son of a bitch.
Subject(s): Collective Behavior; Hate; Social Protest; Mobs; Crowds


MARCH I; FOR DWIGHT MACDONALD, by ROBERT LOWELL    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Under the too white marmoreal lincoln memorial
Last Line: His new-fangled rifle, his green new steel helmet
Subject(s): Social Protest; Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975


MARTYRDOM OF THE QUAKERS, by GEORGE JOY    Poem Source                    
First Line: Those that in conscience cannot wrong a worm
Last Line: To serve the lord, and whips must be their greeting
Subject(s): Friends, Religious Society Of; Social Protest


MASQUERADE, by SYLVIA K. POLIKOFF    Poem Source                    
First Line: In the name of love
Last Line: How the gods must weep!
Subject(s): Social Protest


MAXIMIAN, ELEGY 5, by KENNETH REXROTH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The sky is perfectly clear
Subject(s): Chaos; Grief; Love; Man-woman Relationships; Social Protest; Sorrow; Sadness; Male-female Relations


MAXIMIAN, ELEGY 5, by KENNETH REXROTH    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The sky is perfectly clear
Last Line: Ever lived, had stepped across my grave
Subject(s): Chaos; Grief; Love; Man-woman Relationships; Social Protest


MEMORIAL DAY, POST-WAR, by MARGUERITE MOOERS MARSHALL    Poem Text                    
First Line: For golden lads, a-faring
Last Line: A memory—of rue!
Subject(s): Hate; Holidays; Memorial Day; Social Protest; War; Declaration Day


MERRY-GO-ROUND, by JAMES LANGSTON HUGHES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Where is the jim crow section
Alternate Author Name(s): Hughes, Langston
Subject(s): African Americans; Social Protest; Negroes; American Blacks


MERRY-GO-ROUND, by JAMES LANGSTON HUGHES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Where is the jim crow section
Last Line: Where's the horse %for a kid that's black?
Alternate Author Name(s): Hughes, Langston
Subject(s): African Americans; Social Protest


METAMORPHOSES: 3. THE RE-BIRTH OF VENUS, by GEOFFREY HILL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: And now the sea-scoured temptress, having failed
Subject(s): Chicago; Haymarket Square Riot; Newspapers; Social Protest; Journalism; Journalists


METAMORPHOSES: 3. THE RE-BIRTH OF VENUS, by GEOFFREY HILL    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: And now the sea-scoured temptress, having failed
Last Line: Stayers, and searchers of the fanged pool
Subject(s): Chicago; Haymarket Square Riot; Newspapers; Social Protest


MIDNIGHT: 1917, by MARY CRAIG SINCLAIR    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I drink my blood in secret grief, I weep
Last Line: When hate has loosed its hounds of hell and death!
Alternate Author Name(s): Sinclair, Upton, Mrs.
Subject(s): Grief; Hate; Social Protest; Soldiers; Soldiers' Writings; War; Sorrow; Sadness


MIDWAY, by NAOMI LONG (WITHERSPOON) MADGETT    Poem Text                 Recitation     Poet's Biography
First Line: I've come this far to freedom and I won't turn back
Subject(s): African Americans; African Americans - Women; Social Protest; Negroes; American Blacks


MIDWAY, by NAOMI LONG (WITHERSPOON) MADGETT    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I've come this far to freedom and I won't turn back
Last Line: Mighty mountains loom before me and I won't stop now
Subject(s): African Americans; African Americans - Women; Social Protest


MILITARY DRILL, by EDWARD MERRILL ROOT    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: While the clouds float calm and free
Last Line: Gouts of blood burn ghastly bright!
Alternate Author Name(s): Root, E. Merrill
Subject(s): Cruelty; Military; Murder; Social Protest; Soldiers; War


MILL MOTHER'S LAMENTS, by ELLA MAY WIGGINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: We leave our homes in the morning
Last Line: Let's stand together, workers, %and have a union here
Subject(s): Labor Unions; Social Protest


MOTHER AND DAUGHTER, by JOSEPH BOVSHOVER    Poem Source                    
First Line: A mother's at the washtub
Last Line: But more than I can bear
Subject(s): Poverty; Social Protest


MOTHERS WITH LITTLE SONS, by ANGELA MORGAN    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: O mothers with little sons
Last Line: And the ravaged earth be right
Subject(s): Mothers & Sons; Social Protest; War


MY NAME, by DANIEL BERRIGAN    Poem Source         Poet Analysis            
First Line: If I were pablo neruda
Last Line: The long trek homeward begins %into the land of the unknowning
Subject(s): Social Protest


NAT BACON'S BONES, by ARCHIBALD MACLEISH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Alternate Author Name(s): Fleming, Archibald
Subject(s): Bacon, Nathaniel (1647-1676); Social Protest


NEW APPROACH NEEDED, by KINGSLEY AMIS    Poem Source         Poet Analysis            
First Line: Should you revisit us, %stay a little longer
Last Line: Tell your dad that from me
Subject(s): Social Protest


NEW CITIZENS, by ELIAS MIGUEL MUNOZ    Poem Source                    
First Line: Today %the housewife
Last Line: And finally %they raised their hands %like those who hold up with their fingers %the weight of a new
Subject(s): Politics; Social Protest


NEW ENGLAND LAMENTED, SELS., by JOHN SAFFIN    Poem Source                    
First Line: Some of thy judges in superior courts
Last Line: In evil times the prudent hold their peace
Subject(s): Justice; Social Protest


NICE DAY FOR A LYNCHING, by KENNETH PATCHEN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The bllodhounds look like sad old judges
Subject(s): Lynching; Social Protest


NICE DAY FOR A LYNCHING, by KENNETH PATCHEN    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The bllodhounds look like sad old judges
Last Line: I shall be forever killing; and be killed
Subject(s): Lynching; Social Protest


NORDEAST, by BARTON SUTTER    Poem Source                    
First Line: We thought we'd try the new saloons
Last Line: Oom-pah-pah of happiness
Subject(s): Bars And Bartenders; Egoism And Egotism; Social Protest; Wealth


NORETORP-NORETSYH, by KENNETH REXROTH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Rainy, smoky fall, clouds tower
Subject(s): Evil; Social Protest


NORETORP-NORETSYH, by KENNETH REXROTH    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Rainy, smoky fall, clouds tower
Last Line: Of the world covets your living flesh
Subject(s): Evil; Social Protest


NORTH AND SOUTH, by JUDITH MCDANIEL    Poem Source                    
First Line: Tonight I sit on a porch watching the northern lights
Last Line: Leaving the bud space to grow
Subject(s): Peace; Social Protest


NOT UNAVANGED!, by WILLIAM HENRY BURLEIGH    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Not unavenged, oh brother! Shall thy blood
Last Line: Death to oppression! Freedom to the slave!
Subject(s): Collective Behavior; Social Protest


NOTHING AND THE INCIDENT IN THE STREETS, by GREGORY ORR    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Nothing forced those kids
Last Line: Will be their voice.
Subject(s): Nothingness; Social Protest; Tiananmen Square Incident, 1989; Universities & Colleges; Youth; Nihilism; Voids


OBSERVATIONS IN A CORNISH TEASHOP, by KENNETH REXROTH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: How can they write or paint
Last Line: Fed intravenously?
Subject(s): Cornwall, England; Social Protest; Speculation


OBSERVATIONS IN A CORNISH TEASHOP, by KENNETH REXROTH    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: How can they write or paint
Last Line: Would it be nicer to be %fed intravenously?
Subject(s): Cornwall, England; Social Protest; Speculation


ODD METAPHORS, by WILLIAM LINVILLE    Poem Source                    
First Line: Our massive piracy
Last Line: Do they remember viet nam?
Subject(s): Metaphor; Social Protest


ODE INSCRIBED TO W.H. CHANNING, by RALPH WALDO EMERSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Though loath to grieve / the evil time's sole patriot
Last Line: The astonished muse finds thousands at her side.
Subject(s): Channing, William Henry (1810-1884); Napoleon I (1769-1821); Social Protest


ON A RECENT PROTEST AGAINST SOCIAL CONDITIONS, by DAVID POSNER    Poem Source                    
First Line: The maples have turned. Fire snaps on my tongue
Last Line: Only the dead say nothing, %even then not in fear of error
Subject(s): Social Protest


ON THE DANGER OF WAR, by GEORGE MEREDITH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Avert, high wisdom, never vainly wooed
Last Line: To drums whose loudness is their emptiness.
Subject(s): Nations; Social Protest; War


ON THE FIRST FULL MOON, by JUDITH MCDANIEL    Poem Source                    
Last Line: It is enough %tell her it is enough
Subject(s): Peace; Social Protest


ON THE ROAD TO SANTIAGO, by STEPHEN CRANE    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Well, they got me,' said reuben mcnab
Last Line: That was all
Subject(s): Social Protest; Spanish-american War (1898)


ONE WHO MOBS THE MOB, by RALPH WALDO EMERSON    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Do you understand how to infuse your reason - among thieves
Last Line: He is a wit and a bully himself
Subject(s): Collective Behavior; Social Protest


ONWARD, CHRISTIAN SOLDIER, by FLOYD HARDIN    Poem Text                    
First Line: Help me, o christ, to hold thy sacred cross
Last Line: (his head appears!—thank god!—I've popped my man!)
Subject(s): Christianity; Jesus Christ - Suffering & Sacrifice; Murder; Social Protest; Soldiers; Soldiers' Writings; War


OPENING DAY, by DAVID MCKAIN    Poem Source                    
First Line: Gusts of wind cruise like fish
Last Line: Else gets up, the seagulls yammering upriver.
Subject(s): Antinuclear Movement; History; Pacifism; Social Protest; Nuclear Freeze; Historians; Peace Movements


ORB WEAVER, by ROBERT FRANCIS    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Here is the spinner, the orb weaver
Last Line: To thrive in nature and in man's nature
Subject(s): Social Protest


OSCEOLA, by WALT WHITMAN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: When his hour for death had come
Last Line: (and here a line in memory of his name and death.)
Subject(s): Native Americans; Osceola, Leader Of Seminoles (1804-1838); Social Protest; Indians Of America; American Indians; Indians Of South America


PARADE THE NARROW TURRETS, by LUCIA TRENT    Poem Text                    
First Line: Thumb over your well-worn classics with clammy and accurate eyes
Last Line: And parade the narrow turrets as a cultivated man!
Alternate Author Name(s): Cheyney, Mrs. Ralph; Glass, Mrs. Ernest
Subject(s): Academia; Sacco-vanzetti Case (1921); Social Protest


PARADOX, by BENJAMIN FRANCIS MUSSER    Poem Text                    
First Line: We are a regiment, whose martial cry
Last Line: Your own slain march at our side.
Subject(s): Contrariness; Military; Pacifism; Peace; Social Protest; Soldiers; War; Peace Movements


PARK BENCH, by JAMES LANGSTON HUGHES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I live on a park bench
Last Line: Move on over %to park avenue?
Alternate Author Name(s): Hughes, Langston
Subject(s): African Americans; Homeless; Social Protest


PEACE, by EDWIN MARKHAM    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: O brother, lift a cry, a long world cry
Last Line: To end it in the sacred name of man!
Subject(s): Peace; Social Protest; War


PEACE, by LOUIS UNTERMEYER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: At peace'? The world has never been at peace
Last Line: And peace no slothful, placid mockery.
Alternate Author Name(s): Lewis, Michael
Subject(s): Social Protest; War


PEACE PROSPECT, by DANIELA GIOSEFFI    Poem Source                    
First Line: Too many people scribbling on each other's tongues
Last Line: Bright animals waiting %for the right genetic moment
Subject(s): Pacifism; Peace; Social Protest


PEEKSKILL, by AARON KRAMER    Poem Source                    
First Line: Through every window of this land our song will go
Last Line: It will go through every window of this land!
Subject(s): Mccarthyism; Social Protest


PEOPLE, YES, SELS., by CARL SANDBURG            Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Freedom; Religion; Social Protest


PERMANENT DELEGATE, by YURI SUHL    Poem Source                    
First Line: My name is jew
Last Line: And you will never get rid of me %until the world is hitler-free
Subject(s): Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945); Jews; Social Protest


PHILADELPHIA: SPRING, 1985, by SONIA SANCHEZ    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: To see those eyes
Subject(s): Social Protest


PHILADELPHIA: SPRING, 1985, by SONIA SANCHEZ    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: To see those eyes
Last Line: How still is the spiderless city. %the earth is immemorial in death
Subject(s): Social Protest


PHILIPPINE CONQUEST, by EDGAR LEE MASTERS    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It is the army of an empire not a republic
Last Line: As the englishman is fighting for the banks of london
Subject(s): Social Protest; Spanish-american War (1898)


PLAINT (BEFORE A MOB OF 10,000 AT OWENSBORO, KY.), by CHARLES HENRI FORD    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I, rainey betha, 22 / from the top branch of race-hatred look at you
Alternate Author Name(s): Ford, Charles Henry
Subject(s): Social Protest


PLAINT (BEFORE A MOB OF 10,000 AT OWENSBORO, KY.), by CHARLES HENRI FORD    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I, rainey betha, 22 %from the top branch of race-hatred look at you
Last Line: Oh, who is the forester must tend such a tree, lord? %do angels pick the cherry-blood of folk like m
Alternate Author Name(s): Ford, Charles Henry
Subject(s): Social Protest


PLOT TO ASSASSINATE THE CHASE MANHATTAN BANK, by CARL LARSEN    Poem Source                    
First Line: To assassinate the chase manhattan bank %is not as easy as you'd think
Last Line: Discarded, like the stars, %and sea-foam, and the earth
Subject(s): Social Protest


POEM TO DELIGHT MY FRIENDS WHO LAUGH AT SCIENCE-FICTION, by EDWIN ROLFE    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: That was the year %the small birds in their frail and delicate battalions
Last Line: They may still be there, %may still be there
Alternate Author Name(s): Fishman, Solomon
Subject(s): Social Protest


POEM, SMALL AND DELIBLE, by CAROLYN KIZER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: We have been picketing woolworth's
Last Line: Picketing woolworth's.
Subject(s): Civil Rights Movement; Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand (1869-1948); India; Social Protest; Racism; Women; Women's Rights; Racial Prejudice; Bigotry; Feminism


POLITICAL BALLADS: DATE OBOLUM BELLESARIO, by FRANCIS HOPKINSON    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: As I travell'd o'er the plain
Last Line: A penny to the poor
Subject(s): Charity; Poverty; Social Protest


POLITICAL COMPASSION (A CONTRADICTION IN TERMS), by TIM DIVITO    Poem Source                    
First Line: On this divided earth, play time is over
Last Line: So we can preserve a strong america
Subject(s): Social Protest; United States


POLITICAL POEM, by AMIRI BARAKA    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Luxury, then, is a way of / being ignorant, comfortably
Alternate Author Name(s): Jones, Leroi
Subject(s): Social Protest


POLITICAL POEM, by AMIRI BARAKA    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Luxury, then, is a way of %being ignorant, comfortably
Last Line: Lamenting thru gipsies his fast suicide
Alternate Author Name(s): Jones, Leroi
Subject(s): Social Protest


POOR MINER'S FAREWELL, by MOLLY JACKSON    Poem Source                    
First Line: They leave their dear wives and little ones too
Last Line: Your mining's all over, poor miner, farewell
Subject(s): Mines And Miners; Social Protest


POPULIST, by GEORGE OPPEN    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I dreamed myself of their people, I am of their people
Subject(s): Social Protest; Alienation (social Psychology); Estrangement; Outcasts


PORT AUTHORITY TERMINAL: 9 A.M. MONDAY, by CHAD WALSH    Poem Source                    
First Line: From buses beached like an invasion fleet
Last Line: They fill the waiting room with striding feet
Subject(s): Social Protest


PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR AS A YOUNG ANARCHIST, by KENNETH REXROTH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: While things were going on in europe
Subject(s): Anarchism And Anarchists; Poverty; Social Classes; Social Protest; Wealth; Youth; Caste; Riches; Fortunes


PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR AS A YOUNG ANARCHIST, by KENNETH REXROTH    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: While things were going on in europe
Last Line: Stole out and shat in the golf holes
Subject(s): Anarchism And Anarchists; Poverty; Social Classes; Social Protest; Wealth; Youth


PRAYER AT THE GRAVES OF THE MURDERED STRIKERS, by CICERO QUEENS    Poem Source                    
First Line: O lord jesus christ, here are my men in their coffins
Last Line: If he were to come to carolina?
Subject(s): Labor Unions; Social Protest; Strikes


PROGRESS, by GEORGE MEREDITH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In progress you have little faith, say you
Last Line: And naming progress, both shall have the word.
Subject(s): Progress; Social Protest; War


PROTEST, by JOSE SANTOS CHOCANO    Poem Source                    
First Line: Who and where are they that have done their best
Last Line: Heeding no cries, no signals from the sea!
Subject(s): Enemies; Social Protest


PROTESTS (AFTER A PAINTING BY HUGO BALLIN), by LOUIS UNTERMEYER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Something impelled her from the / hearth
Last Line: And all the sudden singing skies!
Alternate Author Name(s): Lewis, Michael
Subject(s): Social Protest


PSALM 5, by ERNESTO CARDENAL    Poem Source                    
First Line: Give ear to my words, o lord
Last Line: As with armor-plated tanks
Subject(s): Central America; Peace; Political Campaigns; Social Protest; War


QUERY, by JUDITH MCDANIEL    Poem Source                    
First Line: Did you see %god today
Last Line: On the sand %by a wind-blown weed
Subject(s): Peace; Social Protest


RECRUITING DRIVE, by CHARLES STANLEY CAUSLEY    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Under the willow the willow
Alternate Author Name(s): Causley, Charles
Subject(s): Military Service, Compulsory; Social Protest; War; Conscription; Military Draft; Selective Service


RECRUITING DRIVE, by CHARLES STANLEY CAUSLEY    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Under the willow the willow
Last Line: And caught in the snare of the bleeding air %the butcher-bird sings, sings, sings
Alternate Author Name(s): Causley, Charles
Subject(s): Military Service, Compulsory; Social Protest; War


REGARDING THE ONE MINUTE OF SILENCE ON ARMISTICE DAY, by HENRY STEPHENS SALT    Poem Text                    
First Line: Small help from that famed silence can we win
Last Line: Brief spell of silence? Nay! Long spell of thought!
Subject(s): Holidays; Silence; Social Protest; Veterans Day; War


REMARKS ABOUT KINGS, by HENRY VAN DYKE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: God said, 'I am tired of kings'
Last Line: Smiled in the dark.
Alternate Author Name(s): Civis Americanus
Subject(s): Courts & Courtiers; God; Government; Mankind; Social Protest; War; Human Race


REMEMBER AGAIN, by R. W. S.    Poem Text                    
First Line: Rain in the blackness. Stabs of flame in the blackness
Last Line: Remember again.
Subject(s): Army - United States; Army Life; Memory; Pain; Social Protest; Soldiers; Soldiers' Writings; Veterans Day; War; Drills & Minor Tactics; Suffering; Misery


REMEMBERING AND HONORING TONI CADE BAMBARA, by SONIA SANCHEZ    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: How to respond to the genius
Last Line: Read everything? Saw everything?
Subject(s): Bambara, Toni Cade (1939-1995); African Americans – Women; Social Protest; Writing & Writers


REMEMBERING THAT ISLAND LYING IN THE RAIN, by THOMAS MCGRATH    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
Last Line: While the rich oratory and the lying famous corrupt %senators mine our lives for another war
Subject(s): Social Protest


RETROSPECT OF SONG, by JANET HAMILTON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I've sung of spring, her buds and flowers
Last Line: Of civil war! O lord, how long?
Alternate Author Name(s): Hamilton, Janet Thompson
Subject(s): Peace; Scotland; Social Protest; War


RETURN TO THE OLD GODS, by UNKNOWN    Poem Source                    
First Line: The land was very dry, the crops suffered
Last Line: And kick him off the mesa
Subject(s): Native Americans; Social Protest


RHYMES FOR THE TIMES: 5, by JANET HAMILTON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Again I ha'e ta'en to the clinkin' o' rhymes
Last Line: The van of progression, oor post, an' oor part.
Alternate Author Name(s): Hamilton, Janet Thompson
Subject(s): Rhyme; Social Protest


RIOT RIMES U.S.A., by RAYMOND RICHARD PATTERSON    Poem Source                    
First Line: The foodstore owned by old man meyer
Last Line: But some of us were more afraid %to keep on living like we been
Alternate Author Name(s): Patterson, Ray
Subject(s): African Americans; Social Protest


RUFFIAN RALLY, SELS., by JOHN PIERPONT    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Brother ruffians! Ye who dwell
Last Line: Shout, 'hurra for law and order!'
Subject(s): Collective Behavior; Social Protest


SALVOS FOR RANDOLPH BOURNE, by HORACE GREGORY    Poem Source         Poet Analysis            
First Line: O bitterness never spoken, the death mask etched in
Last Line: Or not to be
Subject(s): Bourne, Randolph Silliman (1886-1918); Critics And Criticism; Social Problems; Social Protest


SECURITY, by ROBERT G. TUCKER    Poem Source                    
First Line: Filthy, sick, and dying, %they wait, they mill and wait
Last Line: Oh, at the gates, they move, %but - fear no evil
Subject(s): Social Protest


SERMON OF SPRING, SELS., by JULIA WARD HOWE            Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Social Protest


SHE'S FREE!, by FRANCES ELLEN WATKINS HARPER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: How say that by law we may torture and chase
Last Line: For the child of her love is no longer a slave.
Subject(s): African Americans - Women; Slavery; Social Protest; Women; Serfs


SHOOT THE BEAST!, by MORRIS ROSENFELD    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Don't spare the bullets! Load your gun
Last Line: No man will hear, no god assist him
Subject(s): Labor Unions; Social Protest; Strikes


SLAVE-HUNTERS ARE IN BOSTON, by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Last Line: Dirty work for a country that is so loud about freedom as ours!
Subject(s): Slavery; Social Protest


SLAVERY, by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Slavery is a foul and monstrous idol
Last Line: To be worshipped again %with human sacrifice
Subject(s): Slavery; Social Protest


SLEEP-WALKERS, by EDWARD MERRILL ROOT    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Black congo and red amritsar
Last Line: Somnambulists who wake in hell?
Alternate Author Name(s): Root, E. Merrill
Subject(s): Evil; Military; Social Protest; Soldiers; War


SOCIAL DISTORTION, by A. K. HUTCHINSON    Poem Source                    
First Line: When grandmothers and children are shot
Last Line: Which could not decide what was important
Subject(s): Social Protest


SONG AND CRY OF A SOLDIER IN THE LINES, by ALBERT EDWARD CLEMENTS    Poem Text                    
First Line: Sharpen the sky to flashes of flame
Last Line: When a cross and dust mark where you fell?
Subject(s): Death; Government; Social Protest; Soldiers; War; World War I; Dead, The; First World War


SONNET - REALITIES: 1, by EDWARD ESTLIN CUMMINGS    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls
Last Line: Moon rattles like a fragment of angry candy
Alternate Author Name(s): Cummings, E. E.
Subject(s): Cambridge, Massachusetts; Social Protest


SOUNDING, by AMIRI BARAKA    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: And so the seasons, they tell us
Last Line: Blind visionaries babbling
Alternate Author Name(s): Jones, Leroi
Subject(s): African Americans; Racism; Social Protest; Negroes; American Blacks; Racial Prejudice; Bigotry


SOUNDING, by AMIRI BARAKA    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: And so the seasons, they tell us
Last Line: All no no no self no no no no selves no no no no world no no no no no no
Alternate Author Name(s): Jones, Leroi
Subject(s): African Americans; Racism; Social Protest


SPEECH TO THE COURT, by WALTER LOWENFELS    Poem Source                    
First Line: Even now the question has changed since I started this
Last Line: And we know we are moving %towards the songs of others
Subject(s): Social Protest


SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: CARL HAMBLIN, by EDGAR LEE MASTERS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The press of the spoon river clarion was wrecked
Last Line: "but the multitude saw why she wore the bandage."
Subject(s): Chicago; Haymarket Square Riot; Newspapers; Social Protest; Journalism; Journalists


SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: EUGENE CARMAN, by EDGAR LEE MASTERS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Rhodes' slave! Selling shoes and gingham
Last Line: From a broken vein in my head.
Subject(s): Social Protest


SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: HARRY WILMANS, by EDGAR LEE MASTERS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I was just turned twenty-one
Last Line: A flag! A flag!
Subject(s): Patriotism; Social Protest; Spanish-american War (1898)


SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: PETIT THE POET, by EDGAR LEE MASTERS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Seeds in a dry pod, tick, tick, tick
Last Line: While homer and whitman roared in the pines?
Variant Title(s): Petit, The Poet
Subject(s): Poetry & Poets; Social Protest


SPRING AND FALL: TO A YOUNG CHILD, by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Margaret, are you grieving
Last Line: It is margaret you mourn for.
Variant Title(s): Spring And Fall
Subject(s): Autumn; Children; God; Grief; Holidays; Labor & Laborers; Mnemonics; Mourning; New Year; Seasons; Social Protest; Spring; Fall; Childhood; Sorrow; Sadness; Work; Workers; Bereavement


STANZAS TO AN ALIEN, SELS., by PHILIP FRENEAU    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I thought you wrong to come so far
Last Line: You'll see them to the devil drive
Subject(s): Justice; Social Protest


STRANGE FUNERAL IN BRADDOCK, by MICHAEL GOLD    Poem Source                    
First Line: Listen to the mournful drums of a strange funeral
Last Line: Listen to the story of a strange american funeral
Subject(s): Communism; Labor And Laborers; Poverty; Social Protest


STRANGERS IN YOUR TOWN, by PETER LA FARGE    Poem Source                    
First Line: I'm an indian, I'm an alien
Last Line: On the road that's freedom bound
Subject(s): Native Americans; Social Protest


STRIKERS, by LOUIS UNTERMEYER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In the mud and scum of things
Last Line: Nothing shall keep us dumb!
Alternate Author Name(s): Lewis, Michael
Subject(s): Insanity; Labor Unions; Social Protest; Strikes; Madness; Mental Illness; Labor Disputes; Lockouts


STRONG MEN, by STERLING ALLEN BROWN    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: They dragged you from the homeland
Subject(s): African Americans; Racism; Slavery; Social Protest; Strength; Negroes; American Blacks; Racial Prejudice; Bigotry; Serfs


STRONG MEN, by STERLING ALLEN BROWN    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: They dragged you from the homeland
Last Line: The strong men gittin' stronger %strong men %stronger
Subject(s): African Americans; Racism; Slavery; Social Protest; Strength


SUFFICIENT, by KENNETH REXROTH    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Ancre ridgedge et poissoble gongpoint
Last Line: Invariant as grace, as the answer %plenum
Subject(s): Social Protest; Thought


SUNDAY, by LOUIS UNTERMEYER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It was sunday-/ eleven in the morning; people were at / church
Last Line: It was sunday!
Alternate Author Name(s): Lewis, Michael
Subject(s): Insanity; Marching & Marches; Sabbath; Social Protest; Madness; Mental Illness; Sunday


SURRENDER SPEECH OF CHIEF JOSEPH, by JOSEPH    Poem Source                    
First Line: I am tired of fighting
Last Line: I will fight no more forever
Subject(s): Native Americans; Social Protest


SWEATSHOP, by MORRIS ROSENFELD    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Corner of pain and anguish, there's a worn old house
Last Line: And they must obey him, bow to everything
Subject(s): Poverty; Social Protest; Sweatshops


TARRIERS' SONG, by UNKNOWN    Poem Source                    
First Line: Every morning at seven o'clock
Last Line: And rill, ye tarriers, drill
Subject(s): Poverty; Social Protest


TEAR GAS, by ADRIENNE CECILE RICH    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: This is how it feels to do something you are afraid of
Last Line: It's not the worst way to live
Subject(s): Social Protest


TENEBRAE (FALL OF 1967), by DENISE LEVERTOV    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Heavy, heavy, heavy, hand and heart
Subject(s): Social Protest; Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975


TENEBRAE (FALL OF 1967), by DENISE LEVERTOV    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Heavy, heavy, heavy, hand and heart
Last Line: Of the war. They are %not listening, not listening
Subject(s): Social Protest; Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975


THE AFTERLIFE: LETTER TO STEPHEN DOBYNS: 1, by HAYDEN CARRUTH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: You live in a sinking nation, stephen, in a stinking
Last Line: Of all the beauty and comradeship I've lost.
Subject(s): Corruption In Politics; Dobyns, Stephen; Future Life; Letters; Social Protest; United States; Retribution; Eternity; After Life; America


THE BATH: AUGUST 6, 1945, by KIMIKO HAHN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Bathing the summer night
Last Line: And to take hold.
Subject(s): Antinuclear Movement; Atomic Bomb - Victims; Hiroshima, Japan; Nuclear War; Peace; Radiation & Radiation Sickness; Social Protest; Survival; War; Nuclear Freeze; Atomic Bomb; Hydrogen Bomb


THE BATTLE-FIELD, by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Once this soft turf, this rivulet's sands
Last Line: The blast of triumph o'er thy grave
Subject(s): Peace; Religion; Social Protest; Theology


THE BELLS OF HEAVEN, by RALPH HODGSON    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Twould ring the bells of heaven
Last Line: And little hunted hares.
Subject(s): Animals; Social Protest


THE BLIND MAN, by WILLIAM HERVEY ALLEN JR.    Poem Text         Poet Analysis            
First Line: At nogent, on the river marne
Last Line: "my little eleanor is dead."
Alternate Author Name(s): Allen, Hervey
Subject(s): Blindness; Death; Death - Children; Democracy; Fathers; Innocence; Schools; Social Protest; War; Visually Handicapped; Dead, The; Death - Babies; Students


THE BOY IN ARMOR; HE SPEAKS TO THE GATHERED NATIONS, by HERMANN HAGEDORN    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Tremble, o world! Bow down! Cringe! Be afraid!
Last Line: For you shall think! And ghosts will drive you on!
Subject(s): Death; Ghosts; Lectures; Patriotism; Social Protest; Soldiers; Supernatural; Thought; War; Dead, The; Addresses; Speaking; Public Speaking; Thinking


THE CRIMINALITY OF WAR, by EDWARD YOUNG (1683-1765)    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: One to destroy is murder by the law
Last Line: War's glorious art, and gives immortal fame.
Subject(s): Crime & Criminals; Fame; Injustice; Murder; Social Protest; War; Reputation


THE CRY OF THE CHILDREN, by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Do ye hear the children weeping, o my brothers
Last Line: Than the strong man in his wrath.'
Variant Title(s): The Bitter Cry Of The Children
Subject(s): Child Labor; Coal Mines & Miners; Freedom; Social Protest; Liberty


THE CRY OF YOUTH, by HARRY HIBBARD KEMP    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I heard youth crying in the night
Last Line: "yea, I am youth because I die!"
Subject(s): Death; Social Protest; Youth; Dead, The


THE DESERTED VILLAGE, by OLIVER GOLDSMITH    Poem Text     Poem Explanation                 Poet's Biography
First Line: Sweet auburn! Loveliest village of the plain
Last Line: As rocks resist the billows and the sky.
Subject(s): Country Life; Freedom; Lishoy, Ireland; Mothers; Religion; Social Protest; Villages; Liberty; Theology


THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY, SELECTION, by AMBROSE BIERCE    Poem Text     Poem Explanation                 Poet's Biography
Last Line: Frequent oil your safety-clutch.
Subject(s): Death; Egoism & Egotism; Holidays; Noses; Physicians; Social Protest; Dead, The; Doctors


THE DYING OLD YEAR: 1867, by JANET HAMILTON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Avaunt, away! Dread shapes of hate and fear
Last Line: Then passed away, with one low, moaning sigh.
Alternate Author Name(s): Hamilton, Janet Thompson
Subject(s): Crime & Criminals; Death; Holidays; Italy; Law & Lawyers; New Year; Social Protest; Treason & Traitors; Dead, The; Italians; Attorneys


THE ENEMY IN THE GATE; TO BRITANNIA, by JANET HAMILTON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Nay, all this availeth thee nothing
Last Line: The captives of drink, on her shore.
Alternate Author Name(s): Hamilton, Janet Thompson
Subject(s): Alcoholism & Alcoholics; England; Evil; Social Protest; Temperance; Drunkards; Alcohol Abuse; English; Prohibition


THE FARMERS OUTLAW WEEDS, by VINCENT GODFREY BURNS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The farmer lords of podunkville proclaimed a big conclave
Last Line: For diplomats who resolute against the weed called war!
Subject(s): Brotherhood; Diplomacy & Diplomats; Farm Life; Government; Law & Lawyers; Social Protest; War; Weeds; Agriculture; Farmers; Attorneys


THE FLOWER MARKET, by PO CHU-YI    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: In the royal city spring is almost over
Last Line: "would pay the taxes of ten poor houses."
Alternate Author Name(s): Bai Juyi; Bo Juyi; Po Chu-i; Lo T'ien; Jyu-yi
Subject(s): China - Tang Dynasty (618-905); Flowers; Social Protest


THE GOLF LINKS, by SARAH NORCLIFFE CLEGHORN    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The golf links lie so near the mill
Last Line: And see the men at play.
Variant Title(s): Quatrain
Subject(s): Child Labor; Golf; Social Protest; Sports


THE HELL-GOD, by LOUISE MORGAN SILL    Poem Text                    
First Line: I am the hell-god, war!
Last Line: I am the hell-god, war!
Subject(s): Hell; Social Protest; War


THE HOUSE-TOP; A NIGHT PIECE, by HERMAN MELVILLE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: No sleep. The sultriness pervades the air
Last Line: And -- more -- is nature's roman, never to be scourged.
Subject(s): New York Draft Riots (1863); Social Protest


THE JEWISH CEMETERY AT NEWPORT, by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: How strange it seems! These hebrews in their graves
Last Line: And the dead nations never rise again.
Subject(s): Bible; Cemeteries; Jews; Newport, Rhode Island; Religion; Social Protest; Graveyards; Judaism; Theology


THE KINGS, by HENRY WILLIAM HOYNE    Poem Text                    
First Line: Three kings riding forth of old
Last Line: You have wandered from your star!
Subject(s): Christianity; Courts & Courtiers; Religion; Social Protest; War; Royal Court Life; Royalty; Kings; Queens; Theology


THE LAST RESERVATION, by WALTER LEARNED    Poem Text                    
First Line: Sullen and dull, in the september day
Last Line: In the last reservation.
Subject(s): Native Americans - Reservations; Patriotism; Social Protest


THE LATEST DECALOGUE, by ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Thou shalt have one god only; who
Last Line: More than thyself to love thy neighbour.
Subject(s): Bible; Calvinists; Hypocrisy; Religion; Social Protest; Ten Commandments; Theology


THE LEADEN-EYED, by NICHOLAS VACHEL LINDSAY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Let not young souls be smothered out before
Last Line: Not that they die, but that they die like sheep.
Alternate Author Name(s): Lindsay, Vachel
Subject(s): Poverty; Religion; Social Protest; Theology


THE LEANE, by WILLIAM BARNES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: They do zay that a travellen chap
Last Line: An' went vurder wi' them than a dreat.
Subject(s): Grass; Greed; Property; Roads; Social Protest; Avarice; Cupidity; Possessions; Paths; Trails


THE LIE, by WALTER RALEIGH    Poem Text     Poem Explanation                 Poet's Biography
First Line: Go, soul, the body's guest
Last Line: No stab the soule can kill.
Alternate Author Name(s): Ralegh, Walter
Variant Title(s): The Soul's Errand;the Lye
Subject(s): Courage; Freedom; Lies; Social Protest; Soul; Truth; Valor; Bravery; Liberty


THE LITTLE STONES; REMEMBERING A SIGHT OF ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETARY, by BARBARA YOUNG    Poem Text                    
First Line: I saw them shining in the sun
Last Line: And no more stones in arlington.
Subject(s): Arlington National Cemetery; Death; Social Protest; Soldiers; Unknown Soldier; War; Dead, The


THE MAN WITH THE HOE, by EDWIN MARKHAM    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans
Last Line: After the silence of the centuries?
Subject(s): Art & Artists; Farm Life; Freedom; Labor & Laborers; Mankind; Millet, Jean Francois (1814-1875); Oppression; Paintings & Painters; Religion; Social Protest; Soldiers; Agriculture; Farmers; Liberty; Work; Workers; Human Race; Theology


THE MARCH I; FOR DWIGHT MACDONALD, by ROBERT LOWELL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Under the too white marmoreal lincoln memorial
Subject(s): Social Protest; Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975


THE MARCH: 2, by ROBERT LOWELL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Where two or three were flung together, or fifty
Subject(s): Social Protest; Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975


THE MOB, by ADA CAMBRIDGE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Why stand dumbfounded and aghast
Last Line: To live so fast and be so slow to learn!
Alternate Author Name(s): Cross, George, Mrs.
Subject(s): Social Protest


THE NEW ANTHEM, by NORMAN BOLKER    Poem Text                    
First Line: Hammered steel strips laid out
Last Line: With joy and peace on every face.
Subject(s): Poverty; Racism; Religious Discrimination; Social Protest; United States; Racial Prejudice; Bigotry; Religious Conflict; America


THE NEW MARS, by FLORENCE EARLE COATES    Poem Text                    
First Line: I war against the folly that is war
Last Line: For peace on earth,—a lasting peace, and just!
Subject(s): Brotherhood; Peace; Social Protest; War


THE NEWSPAPER, by GEORGE CRABBE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A time like this, a busy, bustling time
Last Line: And rise the thurlow of the future age.
Subject(s): Newspapers; Social Protest; Journalism; Journalists


THE NIGHT COURT, by RUTH COMFORT MITCHELL    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Call rose costara!' / insolent, she comes
Last Line: Call each and all! Call us! And then call her!
Alternate Author Name(s): Young, Sanborn, Mrs.
Subject(s): Courts & Courtiers; Novels & Novelists; Social Protest; Royal Court Life; Royalty; Kings; Queens


THE PHANTOM REVIEW, by SQUIRE OMAR BARKER    Poem Text                    
First Line: Come phantom feet in the wind tonight and soundless drumbeats roll
Last Line: "our pledge, to ease the watch you tread, ""it shall not be again!"
Alternate Author Name(s): Barker, S. Omar
Subject(s): Army Life; Death; Honor; Military; Social Protest; Soldiers; Drills & Minor Tactics; Dead, The


THE PHILIPPINE CONQUEST, by EDGAR LEE MASTERS            Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It is the army of an empire not a republic
Subject(s): Social Protest; Spanish-american War (1898)


THE PLAGUE OF OUR ISLE, by JANET HAMILTON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: It is said, it is sung, it is written, and read
Last Line: Less deadly by far than the plague of our isle.
Alternate Author Name(s): Hamilton, Janet Thompson
Subject(s): Alcoholism & Alcoholics; Social Protest; Temperance; Drunkards; Alcohol Abuse; Prohibition


THE PORTENT, by HERMAN MELVILLE    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Hanging from the beam
Last Line: The meteor of the war.
Subject(s): Abolitionists; American Civil War; Brown, John (1800-1859); Slavery; Social Protest; United States - History; Anti-slavery; Serfs


THE PREACHER AND THE SLAVE, by JOE HILL    Poem Text                    
First Line: Long-haired preachers come out every night
Last Line: And you'll eat in the sweet bye and bye.
Alternate Author Name(s): Hillstrom, Joesph; Hagglund, Joel
Subject(s): Social Protest


THE RIFLE, by COVINGTON HALL    Poem Text                    
First Line: Tis made of hard, death-tempered steel
Last Line: The message men to tyrants speak!
Alternate Author Name(s): Ami, Covington; Ami, Covami
Subject(s): Arms & Armor; Assassination; Death; Militarism; Murder; Rifles; Social Protest; War; Weapons; Ammunition; Dead, The


THE SEVEN ARTS, by ROBERT FROST    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In the dawn of creation that morning
Last Line: And the seven will all die a-bourneing.
Subject(s): Bourne, Randolph Silliman (1886-1918); Critics & Criticism; Seven Arts (magazine); Social Protest


THE SOCIAL SWIM, by RAY CLARKE ROSE    Poem Text                    
First Line: The social swim! You know the rules
Last Line: The social swim.
Subject(s): Popular Culture - United States; Social Classes; Social Protest; Caste


THE SONG OF THE SHIRT, by THOMAS HOOD    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: With fingers weary and worn
Last Line: "she sang this ""song of the shirt!"
Subject(s): Adversity; Freedom; Labor & Laborers; Religion; Social Protest; Liberty; Work; Workers; Theology


THE STARS' ACCUSAL, by WILLIAM ARTHUR DUNKERLEY    Poem Text                    
First Line: How can the makers of unrighteous wars
Last Line: Through these our sufferings we learn thy will.
Alternate Author Name(s): Oxenham, John
Subject(s): God; Social Protest; Stars; War


THE SUFFICIENT, by KENNETH REXROTH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Ancre ridgedge et poissoble gongpoint
Subject(s): Social Protest; Thought; Thinking


THE TRIBUTE: 1, by HILDA DOOLITTLE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Squalor spreads its hideous length
Last Line: Offer refuse for meat.
Alternate Author Name(s): H. D.; Aldington, Richard, Mrs.
Subject(s): Bible; Poverty; Social Protest


THE TRIBUTE: 2, by HILDA DOOLITTLE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: While we shouted our wares
Last Line: The songs withered black on their lips.
Alternate Author Name(s): H. D.; Aldington, Richard, Mrs.
Subject(s): Bible; Poverty; Social Protest


THE TRIBUTE: 3, by HILDA DOOLITTLE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: And we turn from the market
Last Line: One bright god with a lance.
Alternate Author Name(s): H. D.; Aldington, Richard, Mrs.
Subject(s): Bible; Poverty; Social Protest


THE TRIBUTE: 4, by HILDA DOOLITTLE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: They have sent the old gods from the city
Last Line: Beside one young life that is lost.
Alternate Author Name(s): H. D.; Aldington, Richard, Mrs.
Subject(s): Bible; Poverty; Social Protest


THE TRIBUTE: 5, by HILDA DOOLITTLE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Though not one of the city turned
Last Line: As light circles an olive-branch.
Alternate Author Name(s): H. D.; Aldington, Richard, Mrs.
Subject(s): Bible; Poverty; Social Protest


THE TRIBUTE: 6, by HILDA DOOLITTLE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: With these we will cry to another
Last Line: For our city's sake.
Alternate Author Name(s): H. D.; Aldington, Richard, Mrs.
Subject(s): Bible; Poverty; Social Protest


THE UNKNOWN CITIZEN, by WYSTAN HUGH AUDEN    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: He was found by the bureau of statistics to be
Alternate Author Name(s): Auden, W. H.
Subject(s): Bourgeoisie; Bureaucracy; Conformity; Modern Man; Social Protest; Statistics & Statisticians; Middle Class


THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER, by WITTER BYNNER    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: And then I felt a fever in my veins
Last Line: Was that a whisper in the evening breeze?
Alternate Author Name(s): Morgan, Emanuel
Subject(s): Death; Social Protest; Unknown Soldier; War; Dead, The


THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER, by ARTHUR B. RHINOW    Poem Text                    
First Line: I - they look so solemn and fine. Who are they?
Last Line: Myself—ah, the music.
Subject(s): Honor; Social Protest; Unknown Soldier; War


THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER, by MARGARET STINEBACK    Poem Text                    
First Line: His dreams have all grown lovely with the years
Last Line: Along the path of peace—god's path—instead!
Subject(s): Courage; Graves; Peace; Social Protest; Soldiers; Unknown Soldier; War; Valor; Bravery; Tombs; Tombstones


THE VANITY OF THE WORLD, by FRANCIS QUARLES    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: False world, thou lyest; thou canst not lend
Last Line: Can these bring cordial peace? False world, thou ly'st.
Variant Title(s): The World's Fallacies;wilt Thou Set Thine Eyes
Subject(s): Adversity; Social Protest


THE VICTIM OF DRINK; THE EARLY LOST, by JANET HAMILTON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The early lost I mourn
Last Line: For ever pray.
Alternate Author Name(s): Hamilton, Janet Thompson
Subject(s): Alcoholism & Alcoholics; Drinks & Drinking; Social Protest; Temperance; Drunkards; Alcohol Abuse; Wine; Prohibition


THE VIRGINIA SCAFFOLD; JOHN BROWN, DECEMBER 2, 1859, by EDNA DEAN PROCTOR    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Rear on high the scaffold-altar! All the world will turn to see
Last Line: And his sowing find its reaping in the birthday of the free!
Alternate Author Name(s): Dean
Subject(s): Abolitionists; American Civil War; Brown, John (1800-1859); Slavery; Social Protest; U.s. - History; Anti-slavery; Serfs


THE WAR AGAINST THE TREES, by STANLEY JASSPON KUNITZ    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The man who sold his lawn to standard oil
Subject(s): Social Protest


THE WARS IN SWEDEN, by CAROLYN KIZER    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The streets of stockholm are churning with guerrillas
Last Line: Being the conscience of the white race isn't much fun.
Subject(s): Social Protest; Sweden; Women; Women's Rights; Feminism


THE WATCHER AT THE GATE, by SAMUEL HAWKINS MARSHALL BYERS    Poem Text                    
First Line: Hark - from yonder east there come
Last Line: Love alone can save the world.
Subject(s): Love; Nations; Salvation; Social Protest; War


THE WORLD; SONNET, by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The world is too much with us: late and soon
Last Line: Or hear old triton blow his wreathed horn.
Variant Title(s): Rather A Pagan;worldliness
Subject(s): Alienation (social Psychology); Melancholy; Men; Nature; Paganism & Pagans; Social Protest; Estrangement; Outcasts; Dejection


THE WRAITHS, by EDYTHE C. TONER    Poem Text                    
First Line: Hosts of the martyred dead!
Last Line: "thus die ... Thus die?"
Subject(s): Death; Ghosts; Social Protest; Soldiers; Supernatural; War; Youth; Dead, The


THESE OLD CUMBERLAND MOUNTAIN FARMS, by UNKNOWN    Poem Source                    
First Line: It's hard to be bound down in prison
Last Line: See red campbell, for he composed this song
Subject(s): Sharecroppers; Social Protest


THEY ARE DEAD NOW, by JOHN DOS PASSOS    Poem Source                    
First Line: This isn't a poem
Last Line: Make a poem of that if you dare
Subject(s): Sacco-vanzetti Case (1921); Social Protest


THIS MORNING THE SUN, by OLGA CABRAL    Poem Source                    
Last Line: Seven-year-old boy %in a village that went up in napalm
Subject(s): Social Protest


THIS NEWER BONDAGE, by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: What, was it all for naught, those awful years
Last Line: Nay, not for this, a nation's heroes bled, %and north and south with tears beheld their death
Subject(s): African Americans; Social Protest


THIS NOBLE HEAD, by RALPH WALDO EMERSON    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The very conditions of the game must always be
Last Line: Werever they may wander in the earth
Subject(s): Social Protest; Sumner, Charles (1811-1874)


THIS SOIL SHALL BE OURS, by UNKNOWN    Poem Source                    
First Line: We own not your laws nor your treaties: this soil
Last Line: Has coiled round our vitals: let time tell the rest
Subject(s): Native Americans; Social Protest


THOUGHTS ABOUT THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OF ETERNAL HELL, by FLORENCE MARGARET SMITH    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Is it not interesting to see
Last Line: Oh oh have none of it, %blow it away, have done with it
Alternate Author Name(s): Smith, Stevie
Subject(s): Social Protest


TIMES ARE GETTIN' HARD, BOYS, MONEY GETTIN' SCARCE, by LEE HAYS    Poem Source                    
Last Line: Goin' to have the best farm you have ever seen
Subject(s): Poverty; Social Protest


TIRED, by FENTON JOHNSON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I am tired of work; I am tired of building up somebody else's civilization
Last Line: I am tired of civilization.
Subject(s): African Americans; Civilization; Social Protest; Negroes; American Blacks


TO A CERTAIN VERY UGLY BUILDING: THE ARMORY, by VINCENT GODFREY BURNS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Minotaur of madness, you certainly belong there
Last Line: O slumtown symbol of war's grim insanity!
Subject(s): Arms & Armor; Army - Ireland; Buildings & Builders; Death; Pacifism; Social Protest; War; Weapons; Ammunition; Dead, The; Peace Movements


TO A FRIEND WANTING WAR, by MAXWELL STRUTHERS BURT    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I trust that when the bugles blow
Last Line: To think on death's monotony.
Alternate Author Name(s): Burt, Struthers
Subject(s): Death; Murder; Social Protest; Soldiers; War; World War I; Dead, The; First World War


TO COLONEL CHARLES, by GEORGE MEREDITH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: An english heart, my commandant
Last Line: Where chlum drove deep in smoky jets.
Subject(s): Austria; Social Protest; War


TO MAKE THE PEOPLE HAPPY, LASH THEM WITH GUNS, by VICTOR MARIE HUGO    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
Last Line: Turns flabby and trembles; and - peace! Says war
Subject(s): Social Protest


TO MOTHER EARTH, by JANET HAMILTON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: O earth, earth, earth! Where wilt thou hide thy slain?
Last Line: The wrath of man but works his will, earth's sovereign judge is he.
Alternate Author Name(s): Hamilton, Janet Thompson
Subject(s): Earth; Social Protest; War; World


TO PEACE, by W. W. M.    Poem Text                    
First Line: We are the dead
Last Line: Make green thy fields for us, and bring us tears and laughter?
Subject(s): Death; Military; Peace; Social Protest; War; Women; Dead, The


TO SCIENCE; SONNET, by EDGAR ALLAN POE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Science! True daughter of old time thou art!
Last Line: The summer dream beneath the tamarind tree?
Variant Title(s): Sonnet - To Science;to Science
Subject(s): Hate; Mythology; Social Protest


TO SIR TOBY, by PHILIP FRENEAU    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: If there exists a hell, the case is clear
Last Line: And hardly safe from brother traitors there.
Subject(s): Slavery; Social Protest; Serfs


TO THE LADIES, by ARNOLD KENSETH    Poem Source                    
First Line: Moves in me now the tongues, the gongs
Last Line: Hearing her sister come, waiting the hiss %to turn her to a mrs. From a miss ... ?
Subject(s): Social Protest


TODAY, by JUDITH MCDANIEL    Poem Source                    
First Line: This is her life. She makes coffee in the morning
Last Line: Seeing each detail with her heart
Subject(s): Peace; Social Protest


TOWARD THE JURASSIC AGE, by CLARIBEL ALEGRIA    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Someone brought them to palma
Last Line: Impossible to bury them
Alternate Author Name(s): Flakoll, Darwin, Mrs.
Subject(s): Central America; Social Protest; Tyranny & Tyrants; War; Dictators


TOWARD THE JURASSIC AGE, by CLARIBEL ALEGRIA    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Someone brought them to palma
Last Line: Impossible to bury them
Alternate Author Name(s): Flakoll, Darwin, Mrs.
Subject(s): Central America; Social Protest; Tyranny And Tyrants; War


TRANSFIGURATIONS, by JAMES OPPENHEIM    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: We spat on the dirt and the flesh
Last Line: Then hell will be emptier.
Subject(s): Poverty; Social Protest


TRANSFORMATION, by CARL SANDBURG    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In many homes / one sees old shrapnel cases
Last Line: Let me work.
Subject(s): Change; Death; Social Protest; Soldiers; War; World War I; Dead, The; First World War


TRICKLE DOWN, by CARL STILLWELL    Poem Source                    
First Line: Corporate downsizing
Last Line: If it doesn't dribble through
Subject(s): Corporate Downsizing; Economics; Social Protest


TRIUMPH OF INFIDELITY, SELS., by TIMOTHY DWIGHT    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Subject(s): Clergy; Social Protest


TRUE GREATNESS?, by TIM DIVITO    Poem Source                    
First Line: Cold and alone in the world
Last Line: As long as people eat out of garbage cans
Subject(s): Social Protest


TWENTY MILLION, FROM LOST YOUTH: THE LAST WAR, by ALFRED FRANCIS KREYMBORG    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: In nineteenfourteen
Last Line: Than there are stars in heaven
Subject(s): Social Protest; War


TWO BUMS WALK OUT OF EDEN. EVENING APPROACHES, by ROBERT FRANCIS    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
Last Line: Now there is room for evening in the park %where cool episcopal bells are calling, calling
Subject(s): Social Protest


TWO SONNETS, IN 1972: 2. MAY, by DAVID LEHMAN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: With little to do, and less to say
Subject(s): Social Protest


UNHAPPY BOSTON, by PAUL REVERE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Unhappy boston! See thy sons deplore
Last Line: Shall reach a judge who never can be bribed.
Subject(s): Boston Massacre; Collective Behavior; Social Protest; U.s. - History; Mobs; Crowds


UNKNOWN CITIZEN, by WYSTAN HUGH AUDEN    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: He was found by the bureau of statistics to be
Last Line: Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd: %had anything been wrong, we should certainly hav
Alternate Author Name(s): Auden, W. H.
Subject(s): Bourgeoisie; Bureaucracy; Conformity; Modern Man; Social Protest; Statistics And Statisticians


UNNATURAL ACT, by MICHAEL CERAOLO    Poem Source                    
First Line: The axiom has always held that money is the mother's milk of politics
Last Line: Resulting in the malnutrition of the body politic
Subject(s): Politics; Social Protest


UNTIL WE DROOL AND PISS OURSELVES, by STEPHEN DOBYNS    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Car honk, donkey bray, seal bark - it's only since
Last Line: This tumult, undefined, forms the footpath to the final death: his own
Subject(s): Change; Death; Social Protest


UNWANTED, by EDWARD FIELD    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The poster with my picture on it
Alternate Author Name(s): Elliot, Bruce
Subject(s): Gays & Lesbians; Labor & Laborers; Poetry & Poets; Social Protest; Homoeroticism; Lesbians; Gay Women; Gay Men; Work; Workers


UNWANTED, by EDWARD FIELD    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The poster with my picture on it
Last Line: Warning: this man is not dangerous, answers to any name %responds to love, don't call him or he will
Alternate Author Name(s): Elliot, Bruce
Subject(s): Homosexuality; Labor And Laborers; Poetry And Poets; Social Protest


UPON THE WINDS OF SPRING, by MARY CRAIG SINCLAIR    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I feel the terror in the world tonight
Last Line: Pain stabs my heart and binds the wound with fear!
Alternate Author Name(s): Sinclair, Upton, Mrs.
Subject(s): Death; Social Protest; Soldiers; Spring; World War I; Dead, The; First World War


VANZETTI SPEAKS TO THE COURT, by BARTOLOMEO VANZETTI    Poem Source                    
First Line: If it had not been for these things
Last Line: That last moment belong to us - %that agony is our triumph
Subject(s): Sacco-vanzetti Case (1921); Social Protest


VERSES FROM ANTI-TURNPIKE RIOTS; PEMBROKESHIRE, 1843, by UNKNOWN    Poem Source                    
First Line: Where is rebecca? That daughter of my story!
Last Line: Bu all to no purpose - good-bye then, rebecca!
Subject(s): Social Protest; Toll Roads


VERSES TO THE TOLL-COLLECTOR, CARMARTHEN, WALES, by UNKNOWN    Poem Source                    
First Line: By blood and fire christ strikes the blow
Last Line: Who admits none, except they pay %the piper
Subject(s): Social Protest; Toll Roads


VICARIOUS ATONEMENT, by RICHARD ALDINGTON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: There is an old and very cruel god
Last Line: This bitter cup from us.
Subject(s): Death; Goddesses & Gods; Military; Mythology; Social Protest; Soldiers; War; Dead, The


VISION OF PIERS PLOWMAN, SELS., by WILLIAM LANGLAND            Poet Analysis            
Subject(s): Brotherhood; Freedom; Social Protest


W (VIVA): 30, by EDWARD ESTLIN CUMMINGS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I sing of olaf glad and big
Alternate Author Name(s): Cummings, E. E.
Subject(s): Social Protest; World War I; First World War


W (VIVA): 30, by EDWARD ESTLIN CUMMINGS    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I sing of olaf glad and big
Last Line: More brave than me:more blond than you
Alternate Author Name(s): Cummings, E. E.
Subject(s): Social Protest; World War I


WAGE-SLAVES TO WAR-MAKERS, by EDWARD RALPH CHEYNEY    Poem Text                    
First Line: We have no land for which to fight
Last Line: It will be you, it will be you!
Alternate Author Name(s): Cheyney, Ralph
Subject(s): Labor & Laborers; Russian Revolution; Social Protest; War; Work; Workers


WAIL FOR MASSACHUSETTS, SELS., by DANIEL S. WHITNEY                       
Subject(s): Social Protest


WAKING NIGHTMARES: I, by JUDITH MCDANIEL    Poem Source                    
First Line: I think that when they slit open
Last Line: But you have know the devil
Subject(s): Peace; Social Protest


WAKING NIGHTMARES: II, by JUDITH MCDANIEL    Poem Source                    
First Line: Declaring thursday that the nation's limits
Last Line: Who have too little regard for human life
Subject(s): Peace; Social Protest


WAR, by ARTHUR JOHN ARBUTHNOTT STRINGER    Poem Text                    
First Line: From hill to hill he harried me
Last Line: Who'd wronged not mine nor me!
Alternate Author Name(s): Arbuthnott, John
Subject(s): Injustice; Murder; Social Protest; Soldiers; War


WAR AGAINST THE TREES, by STANLEY JASSPON KUNITZ    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The man who sold his lawn to standard oil
Last Line: One witness-moment, caught %in the rear-view mirrors of the passing cars
Subject(s): Social Protest


WAR BETWEEN TWO RACES OF ANTS, by HENRY DAVID THOREAU    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It was - a war between two races of ants
Last Line: The battle which I witnessed %took place in the presidency of polk
Subject(s): Polk, James Knox (1795-1849); Social Protest; U.s. - Mexican War (1846-1848)


WAR DEAD, by PATRICK JOHN MCALISTER ANDERSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis            
First Line: Always the dead seem unsuccessful
Last Line: Of those in whom we might have been justified.
Subject(s): Death; Social Protest; Soldiers; War; Dead, The


WAR DISPLAY, by EDMUND VANCE COOKE    Poem Text                    
First Line: This is the song of the thousand who are multipled by twelve
Last Line: For oh, we are proud that we flaunt this flesh in the markets of dismal death!
Subject(s): Death; Military Service, Compulsory; Military Service, Voluntary; Social Protest; Soldiers; War; Youth; Dead, The; Conscription; Military Draft; Selective Service


WAR FOR SLAVERY WAS WAGED FOR BASEST ENDS, by WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
Last Line: How can I ppray to heaven for thy success?
Subject(s): Social Protest; U.s. - Mexican War (1846-1848)


WAR IN CHANG-AN CITY, by WANG TS'AN    Poem Source                    
First Line: Chang-an in utter confusion
Last Line: Who lies there, long with a broken heart %for the sweet day of peace
Subject(s): Social Protest


WAR IS KIND: 1, by STEPHEN CRANE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Do not weep, maiden, for war is kind
Last Line: War is kind.
Subject(s): American Civil War; Americans; Men; Social Protest; United States - History; United States; America


WAR WITH SPAIN, by BERTRAND SHADWELL    Poem Source                    
First Line: Where fever does its deadly work
Last Line: And raise the despot's flag of the grim old world
Subject(s): Social Protest; Spanish-american War (1898)


WAR YEAR, by TS'AO SUNG    Poem Source                    
First Line: Lowland hills and rivers %dragged on to the war map
Last Line: Ten thousand corpses %to rot!
Subject(s): Social Protest


WAR!, by ANONYMOUS    Poem Text                    
First Line: "war - a dirty, loathesome, servile murder-job"
Last Line: Because he made them in his image
Subject(s): Death;injustice;military;social Protest;soldiers;war; "dead, The;


WARMEST AND COLDEST DAY EVER, by ALFRED FRANCIS KREYMBORG    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I'll never %forget how
Last Line: And the papers we caught %turned to snow
Subject(s): Social Protest; War


WATERLOO, by HAYDEN CARRUTH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Overlooking the battlefield, on that grassy
Last Line: At him. Perhaps he wasn't there. But he was.
Subject(s): Sadism; Social Protest; War; Waterloo; Battle Of Waterloo


WE DIDN'T KNOW, by TOM PAXTON    Poem Source                    
First Line: We didn't know, said the burgermeister %about the camp on the edge of town
Last Line: I wish this war was over abd through, %but what do you expect me to do?
Subject(s): Social Protest


WEBSTER, by FREDERICK DOUGLASS    Poem Source                    
First Line: A thunder-shivered column stood before me
Last Line: And as a house divided against itself must fall, %so daniel webster has fallen
Alternate Author Name(s): Bailey, Frederick Augustus Washington
Subject(s): Slavery; Social Protest


WEBSTER, by RALPH WALDO EMERSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Why did all manly gifts in webster fail?
Last Line: He wrote on nature's grandest brow, for sale.
Subject(s): Nature; Social Protest; Webster, Daniel (1782-1852)


WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO AMERICA, by RAYMOND RICHARD PATTERSON    Poem Source                    
First Line: What ever happened to %those crazy white
Last Line: They had lots of friends
Alternate Author Name(s): Patterson, Ray
Subject(s): Civil Rights Movement; Social Protest


WHEN THE COCK CROWS; TO THE MEMORY OF FRANK LITTLE, by ARTURO GIOVANNITTI    Poem Source                    
First Line: Six men drove up to hsi house at midnight and woke the poor woman who kept it
Last Line: Even then, even then, I shall not deny him
Subject(s): Labor Unions; Social Protest; Strikes; World War I


WHEN VIRTUE'S TEMPLE FALLS, by SOPHIA L. LITTLE    Poem Source                    
First Line: And did ye think, ye tyrants! That these deeds
Last Line: And lifts, in faith, to heaven, her glory-streaming eyes!
Subject(s): Collective Behavior; Social Protest


WHILE THESE IS A COUNTRY TO SHARE, by RALPH WALDO EMERSON    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: We hear the screams of hunted wives and children
Last Line: And depart to some land where freedom exists
Subject(s): Social Protest; Sumner, Charles (1811-1874)


WHITE CHRISTMAS, by WILLIAM ROBERT RODGERS    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Punctually at christmas the soft plush
Last Line: Of repentance for the false day that's fled
Alternate Author Name(s): Rodgers, W. R.
Subject(s): Christmas; Social Protest


WHITE FEATHER, by PHILIP M. HARDING    Poem Text                    
First Line: Strike on, great nations, wage new armaments
Last Line: To watch your bodies rotting clean again.
Subject(s): Evil; Nations; Social Protest; War


WINE FOR THE KING, by CLINTON SCOLLARD    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: What is the word of the wind? The word of the wind is war!
Last Line: Naught, for there must be wine—red, red wine for the king!
Subject(s): Courts & Courtiers; Government; Social Protest; War


WOLVES OF THE BORDER, by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The foul human vultures
Last Line: And the crown of his harvest %is life out of death
Subject(s): Collective Behavior; Social Protest


WOMAN MOURNS FOR HER HUSBAND, by UNKNOWN    Poem Source                    
First Line: They came. They brought the ones
Last Line: But when one's husband dies there is no happiness
Subject(s): Native Americans; Social Protest


WORLD-WINTER, by LAURA BELL EVERETT    Poem Text                    
First Line: Wandering on yestereen
Last Line: Of lasting peace?
Subject(s): Peace; Social Protest; War


YOU ARE BARBARIANS, by ROGER WILLIAMS (1603-1683)    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: When indians hear the horrid filths
Last Line: In the end they will bereave us
Subject(s): Native Americans; Social Protest


YOU AT WASHINGTON, by ERNEST HOWARD CROSBY    Poem Source                    
First Line: There is 'great rejoicing at the nation's capital.' so says the morning's paper
Last Line: May wait long for victory, but never waits in vain
Subject(s): Social Protest; Spanish-american War (1898); War


YOU WHO DENY: A HARANGUE, by ALICIA SUSKIN OSTRIKER            Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: You who deny, my impulse is to shake you
Last Line: We go on
Subject(s): Social Protest