Literature Discussion Questions

O FOR a lodge in some vast wilderness,

Some boundless contiguity of shade,

Where rumor of oppression and deceit,

Of unsuccessful or successful war,

Might never reach me more. My ear is pained,

        5

My soul is sick, with every day’s report

Of wrong and outrage with which earth is filled.

There is no flesh in man’s obdurate heart,

It does not feel for man; the natural bond

Of brotherhood is severed as the flax

        10

That falls asunder at the touch of fire.

He finds his fellow guilty of a skin

Not colored like his own; and having power

To enforce the wrong, for such a worthy cause

Dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey.

        15

Lands intersected by a narrow frith

Abhor each other. Mountains interposed

Make enemies of nations, who had else

Like kindred drops been mingled into one.

Thus man devotes his brother, and destroys;

        20

And, worse than all, and most to be deplored,

As human nature’s broadest, foulest blot,

Chains him, and tasks him, and exacts his sweat

With stripes, that Mercy, with a bleeding heart,

Weeps when she sees inflicted on a beast.

        25