This poem was one of 33 added in the 1916 edition.
NEITHER spite, fellow citizens, Nor forgetfulness of the shiftlessness, And the lawlessness and waste Under democracy's rule in Spoon River Made me desert the party of law and order And lead the liberal party. Fellow citizens! I saw as one with second sight That every man of the millions of men Who give themselves to Freedom, And fail while Freedom fails, Enduring waste and lawlessness, And the rule of the weak and the blind, Dies in the hope of building earth, Like the coral insect, for the temple To stand on at the last. And I swear that Freedom will wage to the end The war for making every soul Wise and strong and as fit to rule As Plato's lofty guardians In a world republic girdled!
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