Freedom Xiv Poem by Kahlil Gibran

Freedom Xiv

Rating: 2.9


And an orator said, 'Speak to us of Freedom.'

And he answered:

At the city gate and by your fireside I have seen you prostrate yourself and worship your own freedom,

Even as slaves humble themselves before a tyrant and praise him though he slays them.

Ay, in the grove of the temple and in the shadow of the citadel I have seen the freest among you wear their freedom as a yoke and a handcuff.

And my heart bled within me; for you can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you, and when you cease to speak of freedom as a goal and a fulfillment.

You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care nor your nights without a want and a grief,

But rather when these things girdle your life and yet you rise above them naked and unbound.

And how shall you rise beyond your days and nights unless you break the chains which you at the dawn of your understanding have fastened around your noon hour?

In truth that which you call freedom is the strongest of these chains, though its links glitter in the sun and dazzle the eyes.

And what is it but fragments of your own self you would discard that you may become free?

If it is an unjust law you would abolish, that law was written with your own hand upon your own forehead.

You cannot erase it by burning your law books nor by washing the foreheads of your judges, though you pour the sea upon them.

And if it is a despot you would dethrone, see first that his throne erected within you is destroyed.

For how can a tyrant rule the free and the proud, but for a tyranny in their own freedom and a shame in their won pride?

And if it is a care you would cast off, that care has been chosen by you rather than imposed upon you.

And if it is a fear you would dispel, the seat of that fear is in your heart and not in the hand of the feared.

Verily all things move within your being in constant half embrace, the desired and the dreaded, the repugnant and the cherished, the pursued and that which you would escape.

These things move within you as lights and shadows in pairs that cling.

And when the shadow fades and is no more, the light that lingers becomes a shadow to another light.

And thus your freedom when it loses its fetters becomes itself the fetter of a greater freedom.

Freedom Xiv
COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Simon Cowell 11 May 2018

hullo gay boys lolllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

5 23 Reply

So beautiful thoughts in the poem.

15 11 Reply
Séamas Ó Súilleabháin 11 January 2010

One can employ these words in overcoming personal struggles. Our own inferiorities, weakness and assumed flaws. At times, I find the likes of Whitman and Gibran to be presented as doctrines as opposed to poetry.

14 8 Reply
Jenna Tails 14 April 2020

this is dumb af who else is doin this for school work

15 2 Reply
Shane Schuck 14 October 2020

Me lol i really dont care i have to find one last poem and my dumb searched freedom poems

0 0
garbage 14 January 2021

freedom poems, literally couldn't choose a dumber topic

0 2 Reply
Mountain Man 17 November 2020

Freedom but where does it lay its weary head, coming out of the darkness

1 0 Reply
school 05 November 2020

same im doing some stupid assignment about FrEeDoM poems

2 2 Reply
person 19 October 2020

who else is doing making connections

2 0 Reply
shalini 12 August 2020

the poem is so so so so so so so so sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo nice and meaningfull so awsome

1 0 Reply
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