O desolate waste of body and of mind, O myriad-celled distiller of hate; Whose task it is to fuse the bonds that bind This thwarted throng in shuffling felon's gait: Lift up your clanging cry of steel on steel! And stamp upon the consciousness of men, (Since Right is pawned, and Reason men congeal), One ringing truth, that wells from penal fen: Proclaim to all that WE, the erring throng, Who pace these halls of hell in senseless round, Deny their reformation's futile song! For none reform where men with bars are bound! For where your lies are said by men to reign, There dwell these three: deceit, distrust, disdain! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE NIGHTINGALE by PAUL VERLAINE LAMENT FOR THE DEATH OF EOGHAN RUADH (OWEN ROE) O'NEIL by THOMAS OSBORNE DAVIS AN APPEAL TO MY COUNTRYWOMEN by FRANCES ELLEN WATKINS HARPER THE SLAVE'S DREAM by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW NOBODY KNOWS BUT MOTHER by MARY MORRISON RETURN OF SPRING by PIERRE DE RONSARD |