Best Paine Poems
Thomas Paine
United States a Founding Father
Born in Norfolk an honest English man
Me proud to be part of a true Ameri can
No summer soldier or sunshine patriot
Spoke what he thought treasure no idiot
Tyranny like hell is not so easily conquered
harder the glorious conflict amour armoured
Still being inspiration in the army of freedom
his memory surely no not just my poor poem
Lover of freedom bringing common sense
the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph
Hater of all the established churches
Lover of the native Indian Iroquois
But no Christian burial for him
No Christian church would receive his body for burial
Thomas Paine - an
Englishman
Maybe the best
American
Long and well before
all the fat folks
who live there now
Spoke of national
institutions
of churches whether
jewish christian or
muslim or other
nonsense
Schemes seeming to
him be no more than
human inventions,
set up to terrify
and enslave mankind
to monopolize for
power
The pain of Paine
Is that a man serves a nation
So that freedom may be obtained
That a man opposes his mother
So that the colony may be free
That what is right is not wrong
And the wrong of the leaders not right
That one opposes his friend
To release the colony
That one dies
And is buried as if one was unknown
As if one was no hero
Who would attend the burial of Paine
When his values drove his ill-willed friends
Made his enemies unite
Paine your pain is great
You now lie peaceful
With no pen
With no sword
Set to rotten
It may have hurt you to know
That you were treated as green boots
No pageantry
No military display
No civic procession
Paine your pain is great
When Burke bewailed the fall of crown and throne,
Paine rose to speak with reason's voice alone.
No gilded past, no scepter's ancient claim
Could dim the light of liberty's pure flame.
He wrote not just for France, but humankind,
To break the chains that fetter soul and mind.
The rights of man, he said, are nature's gift·
No law may bind what reason dares to lift.
Let kings beware the people's waking might,
For truth once armed will not retreat from fight.
No birthright grants a man the power to reign·
The only crown is justice, Paine made plain.
Not merely free from kings must man be made,
But lifted from the depths where hope decayed.
Paine saw the poor not as a class to scorn,
But heirs of rights, though ragged and forlorn.
Let wealth, he urged, not idle in the hands
Of those who rule by birth and old commands.
A tax on riches, just and wisely laid,
Could build the schools where future minds are made.
The widow's tears, the orphan's silent plea·
These too are cries for true democracy.
He dreamed of pensions, bread, and homes secure,
A state that serves the many, not the few and pure.
No throne nor altar held his heart in thrall·
He wrote for those whom power would not call.
And in his lines, a vision bold and wide:
A world where justice walks with human pride.
No parchment stained by kings could Paine revere,
But one inscribed by citizens sincere.
He saw in law not chains, but guiding light·
A charter born of reason, not of might.
Let constitutions rise from common voice,
Where every soul has standing, every choice.
No throne, no peerage, no divine decree
Can match the strength of laws that make men free.
A government, he wrote, must serve the whole,
Not guard the wealth of one exalted role.
Its power must be checked, its bounds defined,
Its purpose clear: uplift the human mind.
He called for rights enshrined, not left to chance,
For justice shaped by reason, not romance.
And in his dream, the world would one day see
A state designed for truth and liberty.
I am grateful for the words on Thomas Paine…
whose words, like me, are a little old and time-worn…
but convey every parents’ dream from the time our children are born.
It is a dream we parents have…a dream that will never cease:
‘I prefer peace.
But if trouble must come let it come in my time
So that my children can live in peace.’