GoSetaPhire

April Is National Poetry Month!  

 THE FALL OF SLAVERY

(For The Benefit of Haile Selassie and Benito Mussolini)

MARCUS GARVEY

The man who holds a slave and laughs at ease

Is devil with a heart of hardest stone:
The man who also lives with pride to tease
Humanity should oft be left alone.
All men should have the freedom of all rights,
For nature made no sovereign but the soul,
And all should look toward the glorious heights,
To seek the sweet enjoyment of the whole.

When selfish creature, void of love for man,
Inflicts his will upon the helpless weak,
All else should spurn him, as they can,
To force him from the sovereign evil peak.
The thoughtful man who loves his brothers well,
Is king to keep upon an earthly throne;
But slavers all should go right down to Hell,
To sleep upon the stabs of burning stone.

The precious life of man demands a will
To fight to hold the trust of his defence,
Though tyrants would all manly freedom kill,
True knights of love should guard the human fence.
Let's set the human standard high for all,
And see that pompous kings and lords obey,
And when they fail through sin, proclaim their fall,
And hasten in for all the freedman's day.

1937