Over 200 years ago: French Revolution ~ Haitian Revolution
(First World > Third World > First World)
Today: Tunisia ~ Egypt ~ Libya ~ Yemen ~ Bahrain ~ Oman ~ Syria ~ Iran... ~ Madison, etc. (Third World > First World > still to come?)
TO TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE*
TOUSSAINT, the most unhappy of men!
Whether the whistling Rustic tend his plough
Within thy hearing, or thy head be now
Pillowed in some deep dungeon's earless den; -
O miserable Chieftain! where and when
Wilt thou find patience? Yet die not; do thou
Wear rather in thy bonds a cheerful brow:
Though fallen thyself, never to rise again,
Live, and take comfort. Thou hast left behind
Powers that will work for thee; air, earth, and skies;
There's not a breathing of the common wind
That will forget thee; thou hast great allies;
Thy friends are exultations, agonies,
And love, and man's unconquerable mind.
-William Wordsworth
(Sing Freedom!; an Amnesty International 30th Anniversary Poetry Anthology, p. 86)
*Toussaint l'Ouverture led the Negro slaves in Haiti against their French masters at the time of the French Revolution. He drove out the French, but they later seized him after asking him to a meeting to discuss peace; he died in a dungeon in France.
*Toussaint l'Ouverture led the Negro slaves in Haiti against their French masters at the time of the French Revolution. He drove out the French, but they later seized him after asking him to a meeting to discuss peace; he died in a dungeon in France.
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