Poem by Florence Earle Coates

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.

1. First and Last
2. Love Sailed at Morn
3. Near and Far
4. Be Thou My Guide
5. Tennyson

John Davies Man ("I know my soul hath power to know all things")

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