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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
JOHN BROWN, by PHOEBE CARY Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Men silenced on his faithful lips Last Line: Settled forever on his head! Subject(s): Abolitionists; Brown, John (1800-1859); Slavery; Anti-slavery; Serfs | |||
MEN silenced on his faithful lips Words of resistless truth and power; -- Those words, reechoing now, have made The gathering war-cry of the hour. They thought to darken down in blood The light of freedom's burning rays; The beacon-fires we tend to-day Were lit in that undying blaze. They took the earthly prop and staff Out of an unresisting hand; God came, and led him safely on, By ways they could not understand. They knew not, when from his old eyes They shut the world for evermore, The ladder by which angels come Rests firmly on the dungeon's floor. They deemed no vision bright could cheer His stony couch and prison ward; He slept to dream of Heaven, and rose To build a Bethel to the Lord! They showed to his unshrinking gaze The "sentence" men have paled to see; He read God's writing of "reprieve," And grant of endless liberty. They tried to conquer and subdue By marshaled power and bitter hate; The simple manhood of the man Was braver than an armed state. They hoped at last to make him feel The felon's shame, and felon's dread; And lo! the martyr's crown of joy Settled forever on his head! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...JOY IN THE WOODS by CLAUDE MCKAY ELIZABETH KECKLEY: 30 YEARS A SLAVE AND 4 YEARS IN THE WHITE HOUSE by E. ETHELBERT MILLER EMANCIPATION by ELIZABETH ALEXANDER JOHN BROWN'S BODY by STEPHEN VINCENT BENET A LEGEND OF THE NORTHLAND by PHOEBE CARY |
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