Poems (1898)/Man
MAN
I was born as free as the silvery light
That laughs in a Southern fountain;
Free as the sea-fed bird that nests
On a Scandinavian mountain,
Free as the wind that mocks at the sway
And pinioning clasp of another,
Yet in the slave they scourged to-day
I saw and knew—my brother!
Vested in purple I sat apart,
But the cord that smote him bruised me;
I closed my ears, but the sob that broke
From his savage breast accused me;
No phrase of reasoning judgement just
The plaint of my soul could smother,
A creature vile, abased to the dust,
I knew him still—my brother.
And the autumn day that had smiled so fair
Seemed suddenly overclouded;
A gloom, more dreadful than Nature owns,
My human mind enshrouded;
I thought of the power benign that made
And bound men one to the other,
And I felt in my brother's fear afraid,
And ashamed in the shame of my brother.