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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - THE WARNING

Beware!  The Israelite of old, who tore
The lion in his path,--when, poor and blind,
He saw the blessed light of heaven no more,
Shorn of his noble strength and forced to grind
In prison, and at last led forth to be
A pander to Philistine revelry,--

Upon the pillars of the temple laid
His desperate hands, and in its overthrow
Destroyed himself, and with him those who made
A cruel mockery of his sightless woe;
The poor, blind Slave, the scoff and jest of all,
Expired, and thousands perished in the fall!

There is a poor, blind Samson in this land,
Shorn of his strength and bound in bonds of steel,
Who may, in some grim revel, raise his hand,
And shake the pillars of this Commonweal,
Till the vast Temple of our liberties.
A shapeless mass of wreck and rubbish lies.

Added: on November 7th, 2005 at 2:11 PM | Viewed: 3775 times | Comments and analysis of THE WARNING by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Comments (2)


THE WARNING - Comments and Information

Poet: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Poem: 8. THE WARNING
Volume: Poems on Slavery

Comment 2 of 2, added on May 18th, 2007 at 2:39 PM.

The Warning was a cool pome it talked about a man that had unbeleveible strength named Samson, must have ben hard to kill 1000 philistines with 1 goat skull.

Ruben Luna from United States
Comment 1 of 2, added on November 7th, 2005 at 2:11 PM.

i thought thi poem was moving...and since no one else but a comment i thought i would!

amanda lee from United States

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