Thomas Moore once wrote that it was
"Better to dwell in Freedom's hall,
With a cold damp floor and mouldering wall,
Than bow the head and bend the knee
In the proudest palace of slaverie."
In other words, it's better to be free and living in a simple place than it is to be a slave in an extravagant palace.
What is the place in which I live? I have heat that I can turn on when it gets cold, air conditioning to turn on when it gets hot, running water (hot and cold), a carpeted floor, electricity, plumbing, etc. I have so much. My floor isn't "cold" or "damp," and my wall isn't "mouldering." Not only that, but I have wireless internet. I have a laptop computer that I can connect via the internet to just about anywhere in the world.
Here's another one by T. Buchanan Read:
"Oh, joy to the world! the hour is come,
When the nations to freedom awake,
When the royalists stand agape and dumb,
And monarchs with terror shake!
Over the walls of majesty
'UPHARSIN' is writ in words of fire,
And the eyes of the bondsman, wherever they be
Are lit with wild desire.
Soon shall the thrones that blot the world,
Like the Orleans, into the dust be hurl'd,
And the word roll on like a hurricane's breath,
Till the farthest slave hears what it saith--
Arise, arise, be free!"
When I read this, I am persuaded to believe that freedoms of all kinds are something important, something to defend.
What do you think about these poems? Any thoughts?
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