Page:Florence Earle Coates Poems 1898 14.jpg

 MAN

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; 14