Skip to content
Linespedia

My Brother's Keeper?

Topics: classic

(A WARNING)     "Am I my brother's keeper?"     Yes, of a truth!     Thine asking is thine answer.     That self-condemning cry of Cain     Has been the plea of every selfish soul since then,     Which hath its brother slain.     God's word is plain,     And doth thy shrinking soul arraign.     Thy brother's keeper?     Yea, of a truth thou art!     For if not--who?     Are ye not both,--both thou and he     Of God's great family?     How rid thee of thy soul's responsibility?     For every ill in all the world     Each soul is sponsor and account must bear.     And He, and he thy brother of despair,     Claim, of thy overmuch, their share.     Thou hast had good, and he the strangled days;     But now,--the old things pass.     No longer of thy grace     Is he content to live in evil case     For the anointing of thy shining face.     The old things pass.--Beware lest ye pass with them,     And your place     Become an emptiness!     Beware!    Lest, when the "Have-nots" claim,     From those who have, their rightful share,     Thy borders be swept bare     As by the final flame.     Better to share before than after.     "After?" ...    For thee may be no after!     Only the howl of mocking laughter     At thy belated care.    Make no mistake!--     "After" will be too late.     When once the "Have-nots" claim ...    they take.     "After!" ...    When that full claim is made,     You and your golden gods may all lie dead.     Set now your house in order,     Ere it be too late!     For, once the storm of hate     Be loosed, no man shall stay it till     Its thirst has slaked its fill,     And you, poor victims of this last "too late,"     Shall in the shadows mourn your lost estate.

AI analysis available. Enable JavaScript to interact.

About this line

"(A WARNING)..."

"My Brother's Keeper?" is a quintessential example of William Arthur Dunkerley (John Oxenham)'s signature style... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

Classified Tags

Related lines

"Burden-bearers are we all,     Great and small.     Burden-sharers be ye all,     Great and small!     Where another shares the load,     Two"

"(TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN)     Hello!    Hello!     Are you there?    Are you there?     Ah!    That you?    Well,--     This is just to tell y"

"Lord God of Hosts, whose mighty hand     Dominion holds on sea and land,     In Peace and War Thy Will we see     Shaping the larger liberty."

"Some have much, and some have more,     Some are rich, and some are poor,     Some have little, some have less,     Some have not a cent to ble"

"Here morning in the ploughman's songs is met     Ere yet one footstep shows in all the sky,     And twilight in the east, a doubt as yet,     S"

"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Continue Reading

"Burden-bearers are we all,     Great and small.   ..."

Weekly Poetic Insight

Join our literary Sanctuary

Get the most inspiring lines, poetic analysis, and secret shayaris delivered to your inbox every Sunday.