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Famous Short Freedom Poems

Famous Short Freedom Poems. Short Freedom Poetry by Famous Poets. A collection of the all-time best Freedom short poems


by Langston Hughes
 Democracy will not come
Today, this year
 Nor ever
Through compromise and fear.

I have as much right 
As the other fellow has
 To stand
On my two feet 
And own the land.

I tire so of hearing people say, 
Let things take their course.
Tomorrow is another day.
I do not need my freedom when I'm dead.
I cannot live on tomorrow's bread.

 Freedom
 Is a strong seed
 Planted
 In a great need.

 I live here, too.
 I want freedom
 Just as you.



by Alexander Pushkin
 In alien lands I keep the body
Of ancient native rites and things:
I gladly free a little birdie
At celebration of the spring.

I'm now free for consolation,
And thankful to almighty Lord:
At least, to one of his creations
I've given freedom in this world!

by Gopabandhu Das
Let my body mingle with the dust of this Land,
And let my countrymen walk along my back;
Let all the holes in the road of freedom be filled with my blood & bone,
And let my life be sacrificed when my people awake into freedom.

by Wang Wei
 As the years go by, give me but peace, 
Freedom from ten thousand matters. 
I ask myself and always answer: 
What can be better than coming home? 
A wind from the pine-trees blows my sash, 
And my lute is bright with the mountain moon. 
You ask me about good and evil fortune?.... 
Hark, on the lake there's a fisherman singing!

by Edgar Lee Masters
 Oh many times did Ernest Hyde and I
Argue about the freedom of the will.
My favorite metaphor was Prickett's cow
Roped out to grass, and free you know as far
As the length of the rope.
One day while arguing so, watching the cow
Pull at the rope to get beyond the circle
Which she had eaten bare,
Out came the stake, and tossing up her head,
She ran for us.
"What's that, free-will or what?" said Ernest, running.
I fell just as she gored me to my death.



by Helen Hunt Jackson
 I WILL not follow you, my bird,
 I will not follow you.
I would not breathe a word, my bird,
 To bring thee here anew.


I love the free in thee, my bird,
 The lure of freedom drew;
The light you fly toward, my bird,
 I fly with thee unto.


And there we yet will meet, my bird,
 Though far I go from you
Where in the light outpoured, my bird,
 Are love and freedom too.

by Nazim Hikmet
 Today is Sunday. 
For the first time they took me out into the sun today. 
And for the first time in my life I was aghast 
that the sky is so far away 
and so blue 
and so vast 
I stood there without a motion. 
Then I sat on the ground with respectful devotion 
leaning against the white wall. 
Who cares about the waves with which I yearn to roll 
Or about strife or freedom or my wife right now. 
The soil, the sun and me... 
I feel joyful and how.

by Les Murray
 Everything except language
knows the meaning of existence. 
Trees, planets, rivers, time
know nothing else. They express it 
moment by moment as the universe. 

Even this fool of a body
lives it in part, and would 
have full dignity within it 
but for the ignorant freedom 
of my talking mind.

by William Butler Yeats
 Parnell came down the road, he said to a cheering man:
'Ireland shall get her freedom and you still break stone.'

by Ambrose Bierce
 Freedom, as every schoolboy knows,
Once shrieked as Kosciusko fell;
On every wind, indeed, that blows
I hear her yell.

She screams whenever monarchs meet,
And parliaments as well,
To bind the chains about her feet
And toll her knell.

And when the sovereign people cast
The votes they cannot spell,
Upon the pestilential blast
Her clamors swell.

For all to whom the power's given
To sway or to compel,
Among themselves apportion Heaven
And give her Hell.

by Victor Hugo
 ("Lorsqu'à l'antique Olympe immolant l'evangile.") 
 
 {Bk. II. v., 1823.} 
 
 {There was in Rome one antique usage as follows: On the eve of the 
 execution day, the sufferers were given a public banquet—at the prison 
 gate—known as the "Free Festival."—CHATEAUBRIAND'S "Martyrs."} 


 





by Victor Hugo
 {Inscription under a Statue of the Virgin and Child, at Guernsey.—The 
 poet sees in the emblem a modern Atlas, i.e., Freedom supporting the 
 World.} 
 
 ("Le peuple est petit.") 


 Weak is the People—but will grow beyond all other— 
 Within thy holy arms, thou fruitful victor-mother! 
 O Liberty, whose conquering flag is never furled— 
 Thou bearest Him in whom is centred all the World. 


 





by Robinson Jeffers
 No bitterness: our ancestors did it.
They were only ignorant and hopeful, they wanted freedom but wealth too.
Their children will learn to hope for a Caesar.
Or rather--for we are not aquiline Romans but soft mixed colonists--
Some kindly Sicilian tyrant who'll keep
Poverty and Carthage off until the Romans arrive,
We are easy to manage, a gregarious people,
Full of sentiment, clever at mechanics, and we love our luxuries.

by Siegfried Sassoon
 Everyone suddenly burst out singing;
And I was filled with such delight
As prisoned birds must find in freedom,
Winging wildly across the white
Orchards and dark-green fields; on--on--and out of sight.

Everyone's voice was suddenly lifted;
And beauty came like the setting sun:
My heart was shaken with tears; and horror
Drifted away ... O, but Everyone
Was a bird; and the song was wordless; the singing will never be done.

by Aleksandr Blok
 I prefer the gorgeous freedom,
And I fly to lands of grace,
Where in wide and clear meadows
All is good, as dreams, and blest.
Here they rice: the clover clear,
And corn-flower's gentle lace,
And the rustle is always here:
"Ears are leaning... Take your ways!"
In this immense sea of fair,
Only one of blades reclines.
You don't see in misty air,
I'd seen it!It will be mine!

by The Bible
We have truly been set free
For Christ has redeemed us,
We can walk in His holy power
And know His saving love
May we stand fast in this freedom
Not to be again ensnared
By the heavy yoke we once had borne
When spiritually we were dead
But thanks be to God,
Who has given us the liberty,
Who has resurrected us
To walk in His victory.Scripture Poem © Copyright Of M.S.Lowndes

by Edgar Lee Masters
 You observe the carven hand
With the index finger pointing heavenward.
That is the direction, no doubt.
But how shall one follow it?
It is well to abstain from murder and lust,
To forgive, do good to others, worship God
Without graven images.
But these are external means after all
By which you chiefly do good to yourself.
The inner kernel is freedom,
It is light, purity --
I can no more,
Find the goal or lose it, according to your vision.

by Emily Dickinson
 Now I knew I lost her --
Not that she was gone --
But Remoteness travelled
On her Face and Tongue.

Alien, though adjoining
As a Foreign Race --
Traversed she though pausing
Latitudeless Place.

Elements Unaltered --
Universe the same
But Love's transmigration --
Somehow this had come --

Henceforth to remember
Nature took the Day
I had paid so much for --
His is Penury
Not who toils for Freedom
Or for Family
But the Restitution
Of Idolatry.

by Walt Whitman
 HERE, take this gift! 
I was reserving it for some hero, speaker, or General, 
One who should serve the good old cause, the great Idea, the progress and freedom of the
 race; 
Some brave confronter of despots—some daring rebel; 
—But I see that what I was reserving, belongs to you just as much as to any. 

 5

by William Henry Davies
 To think my thoughts are hers, 
Not one of hers is mine; 
She laughs -- while I must sigh; 
She sighs -- while I must whine.

She eats -- while I must fast; 
She reads -- while I am blind; 
She sleeps -- while I must wake; 
Free -- I no freedom find.

To think the world for me 
Contains but her alone, 
And that her eyes prefer 
Some ribbon, scarf, or stone.

by Delmore Schwartz
 Yeats died Saturday in France.
Freedom from his animal
Has come at last in alien Nice,
His heart beat separate from his will:
He knows at last the old abyss
Which always faced his staring face.

No ability, no dignity
Can fail him now who trained so long
For the outrage of eternity,
Teaching his heart to beat a song
In which man's strict humanity,
Erect as a soldier, became a tongue.

Janus  Create an image from this poem
by George William Russell
 IMAGE of beauty, when I gaze on thee,
Trembling I waken to a mystery,
How through one door we go to life or death
By spirit kindled or the sensual breath.


Image of beauty, when my way I go;
No single joy or sorrow do I know:
Elate for freedom leaps the starry power,
The life which passes mourns its wasted hour.


And, ah, to think how thin the veil that lies
Between the pain of hell and paradise!
Where the cool grass my aching head embowers
God sings the lovely carol of the flowers.

by Robert Burns
 THE SOLEMN League and Covenant
 Now brings a smile, now brings a tear;
But sacred Freedom, too, was theirs:
 If thou’rt a slave, indulge thy sneer

by Robert Louis Stevenson
 TEMPEST tossed and sore afflicted, sin defiled and care oppressed,
Come to me, all ye that labour; come, and I will give ye rest.
Fear no more, O doubting hearted; weep no more, O weeping eye!
Lo, the voice of your redeemer; lo, the songful morning near.

Here one hour you toil and combat, sin and suffer, bleed and die;
In my father's quiet mansion soon to lay your burden by.
Bear a moment, heavy laden, weary hand and weeping eye.
Lo, the feet of your deliverer; lo, the hour of freedom here.

by Robert Louis Stevenson
 COME to me, all ye that labour; I will give your spirits rest;
Here apart in starry quiet I will give you rest.
Come to me, ye heavy laden, sin defiled and care opprest,
In your father's quiet mansions, soon to prove a welcome guest.
But an hour you bear your trial, sin and suffer, bleed and die;
But an hour you toil and combat here in day's inspiring eye.
See the feet of your deliverer; lo, the hour of freedom nigh.


Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry