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Home  »  The New Poetry  »  The Slave

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.

The Slave

By James Oppenheim

THEY set the slave free, striking off his chains.…

Then he was as much of a slave as ever.

He was still chained to servility,

He was still manacled to indolence and sloth,

He was still bound by fear and superstition,

By ignorance, suspicion, and savagery …

His slavery was not in the chains,

But in himself …

They can only set free men free …

And there is no need of that:

Free men set themselves free.