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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


WHY I AM A LIBERAL by ROBERT BROWNING

Poet Analysis

First Line: WHY?' BECAUSE ALL I HAPLY CAN AND DO
Last Line: "A BROTHER'S RIGHT TO FREEDOM. THAT I ""WHY."
Subject(s): FREEDOM; LIBERTY;

"WHY?" Because all I haply can and do,
All that I am now, all I hope to be, --
Whence comes it save from fortune setting free
Body and soul the purpose to pursue,
God traced for both? If fetters, not a few,
Of prejudice, convention, fall from me,
These shall I bid men -- each in his degree
Also God-guided -- bear, and gayly, too?

But little do or can the best of us:
That little is achieved through Liberty.
Who, then, dares hold, emancipated thus,
His fellow shall continue bound? Not I,
Who live, love, labor freely, nor discuss
A brother's right to freedom. That i "Why."



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