A POWER is stirring—a broad light has shone <br /> Amid the nation’s—in the wilderness <br /> Of the world’s social horror and distress, <br />Heralding temperance as the Baptist John <br />Announced the Christ. Amazed upon her throne, <br /> Built up of skulls that were in life not less <br /> Than temples of great souls—behold Excess <br />Blinks in its rays, and feels her empire gone! <br />And Ignorance and Crime—each brutal vice <br /> That brands the brow with shame and steels the heart, <br />Are starting from their lairs in human sties, <br /> Like felons scared, and gathering to depart: <br />Even as the fiend-gods of the pagan earth <br />Trooped hell-ward at the Babe of Bethlehem’s birth. <br /> <br /><br /><br />Charles Harpur<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-temperance-movement/
