MixedLitPages

POEMS OF SLAVERY: THE WARNING

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow



Poems of Henry W. Longfellow. New York: A.L. Burt Co., 1901, page 223.

Beware! The Israelite of old,
     who tore
  The lion in his path,--when, poor
     and blind,
He saw the blessed light of heaven
     no more,
  Shorn of his noble strength and
     forced to grind
In prison, and at last led forth to be
A pander to Philistine revelry,--
Upon the pillars of the temple laid
  His desperate hands, and in its
     overthrow
Destroyed himself, and with him
     those who made
  A cruel mockery of his sightless
     woe;
The poor, blind slave, the scoff and
     jest of all,
Expired, and thousands perished in
     the fall!
There is a poor, blind Samson in
     this land,
  Shorn of his strength, and bound
     in bonds of steel,
Who may, in some grim revel, raise
     his hand,
  And shake the pillars of this
     Commonweal,
Till the vast Temple of our liberties
A shapeless mass of wreci and rubbish
     lies.