W. Lloyd Garrison Standard

Vegetarian, non - resistant, free-thinker, in ethics a Christian;         Orator apt at the rhine-stone rhythm of Ingersoll.         Carnivorous, avenger, believer and pagan.         Continent, promiscuous, changeable, treacherous, vain,         Proud, with the pride that makes struggle a thing for laughter;         With heart cored out by the worm of theatric despair.         Wearing the coat of indifference to hide the shame of defeat;         I, child of the abolitionist idealism -         A sort of Brand in a birth of half-and-half.         What other thing could happen when I defended         The patriot scamps who burned the court house         That Spoon River might have a new one         Than plead them guilty?         When Kinsey Keene drove through         The card - board mask of my life with a spear of light,         What could I do but slink away, like the beast of myself         Which I raised from a whelp, to a corner and growl?         The pyramid of my life was nought but a dune,         Barren and formless, spoiled at last by the storm.