Explore "Voltaire Johnson" by Edgar Lee Masters on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Why did you bruise me with your rough places / If you did not want me to tell you about them?
And stifle me with your stupidities, / If you did not want me to expose them?
And nail me with the nails of cruelty, / If you did not want me to pluck the nails forth / And fling them in your faces?
And starve me because I refused to obey you, / If you did not want me to undermine your tyranny?
I might have been as soul serene / As William Wordsworth except for you!
But what a coward you are, Spoon River, / When you drove me to stand in a magic circle / By the sword of Truth described!
And then to whine and curse your burns, / And curse my power who stood and laughed / Amid ironical lightning!