The Warning by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The speaker recalls how the blinded, enslaved Samson brought down a temple, killing himself and thousands who mocked him. Comparing bondage in the speaker’s own land to Samson’s captivity, the speaker warns that the oppressed may bring down the commonwealth and its liberties.
By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow · Genre: Political Poetry, Abolitionist Literature · 216 words
First lines
Beware! The Israelite of old, who tore / The lion in his path, -- when, poor and blind, / He saw the blessed light of heaven no more, / Shorn of his noble strength and forced to grind / In prison, and at last led forth to be / A pander to Philistine revelry, --
Upon the pillars of the temple laid / His desperate hands, and in its overthrow / Destroyed himself, and with him those who made / A cruel mockery of his sightless woe; / The poor, blind Slave, the scoff and jest of all, / Expired, and thousands perished in the fall!
Genres
- Political Poetry — The three rhymed stanzas culminate in a warning that bondage threatens the commonwealth and its liberties.
- Abolitionist Literature — The comparison between the enslaved Samson and bondage in the speaker’s land presents slavery as a danger capable of destroying the political order.
Tags
slavery · oppression · Samson · biblical allusion · political warning
What this Textopian page supports
The Warning is listed on Textopian as a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, dated Date unknown.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Political Poetry, Abolitionist Literature
- Length: 216 words
- Structure: 1 section, 3 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Difficult (10th-12th Grade)
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