 | Vigil and vision |  |
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LIBERTY, EQUALITY, FRATERNITY.
1. LIBERTY.
NO one of woman born was ever free;The good to their own goodness and the ill
To their own lusts and passions slaves were still
And bondmen both to that which is to be.
Grim Anarch of our lives, Necessity,
Thou whose stern shade the halls of heaven doth fill,
That bendest all unto thine iron will,
To whom no Gods there are but bow the knee,
How shall a worm like man his little day
From thine enforcement study to withdraw?
None is there free, beneath thine iron law,
Save the sad sage, who, in the lustral fires
Of lonely thought hath purged his lusts away,
The world discarded and forsworn desires.
2. EQUALITY.
EQUALITY! Another idle word,A phrase, wherewith the unflinching egoist
Feeds fools and dupes the dullard at his list.
In any age, since first Creation stirred
With breath and life, when was it seen or heard
That two in heart were equal, wit or fist?
Set Shakspeare by the modern journalist,
Briton by Burgher, lark by carrion-bird,
Aryan by negro? Was there ever drone
So dull, though equal all in talk hold he,
That shaped his practice by his theory,
Chief Aristocrat Nature but must own,
Who, with each act, each voice, her fierceliest
Equality a lie doth still protest?
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3. FRATERNITY.
FRATERNITY! Ah, that, at least, is true;Nor yet alone of human brotherhood,
But of all things created, ill and good.
The mild dumb brutes, that serve us and to due
But for some dole of food and shelter sue;
The pismire in the sand, the insect-brood,
Birds in the bowery height and wolves in wood,
These all claim brotherhood with me and you.
Sweet sister-name of Love, which (Dante says)
Hath made and moveth stars and moon and sun,
Of Love, that lodestar of our darkling days,
Without whose lighting life for us were none,
Ah, might the watchword of the Future be
That keynote of the soul, Fraternity!
| Vigil and vision | |