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The Keeper Of The Flame
(Or, "The Goddess Of Liberty And Freedom")
The Lady In The Harbor holds aloft her
torch—while she tramples a broken chain.
The Mother Of Exiles cries, "Give me your
tired, your poor, your huddled masses
yearning to breath free...send these,
the homeless, tempest-tossed to me!"
As the sunlight reflects the fire of her flame,
she casts her light to the world and implores,
"I lift my lamp beside the golden door
to the wretched refuse of your teeming
shore!" Because that old girl is Our Lady
Liberty, who is enlightening the world.
She is Libertas: The Goddess Of Liberty
And Freedom. And her sandles' stomp keeps
away all of the ancient lands' storied pomp.
For, she took them in, as they came, to the
folds of her robe, since—as far as freedom
goes—she is "The Keeper Of The Flame!"
-Paul Whiting
(a.k.a., Small All White in the Forest)
"I am no barrier to its sun; the light and I are as one!"
My Poetic Notes:
The reason that I wrote this poem can be summed up with the following statement: This poem is a tribute to Our Lady In The Harbor, since The Statue Of Liberty is "The Keeper Of The Flame!"
And that flame is The Flame Of Freedom, it is The Flame Of Democracy, and it is The Flame To Light The Way for those who desire to live in The Land Of Opportunity. For, the United States Of America is a nation of immigrants—and it always will be. We are the land of the free and the home of the brave. We are the DREAMers...
Just so you know, I rewrote this poem, as I often do with my writing! And I changed how the first line of the poem was written, as contained within the first stanza. (By the way, a "line" in a poem is the same concept as a "sentence" in prose; and a "stanza" in a poem is the same concept as a "paragraph" in prose; plus, the term "prose" is the term used to refer to regular writing, which is like the writing in books, magazines and articles, etc.)
And that first line, within the first stanza, was originally written as: "I know why the lady in the harbor tramples a broken chain." Therefore, I changed the first line when I realized that it didn't really make sense, since I shouldn't talking about myself in this poem, I should only be talking about The Statue Of Liberty. Plus, I made some other revisions to this poem. So, I wanted to show you how this poem used to be written, before I rewrote it as above.
And it used to be written like this:
The Keeper Of The Flame
I know why the lady in the harbor
tramples a broken chain. The mother
of exiles cries, "Give me your tired,
your poor, your huddled masses
yearning to breath free...send these,
the homeless, tempest-tossed to me!"
As the sunlight catches the fire of her flame,
she casts her light to the world and roars,
"I lift my lamp beside the golden door
to the wretched refuse of your teeming
shore!" Because that old girl is "Our Lady
Liberty" who is enlightening the world...
...She is Libertas, "The Goddess of Liberty
and Freedom." And her sandles' stomp
keeps away all ancient lands' storied pomp.
For, she took them in—as they came—to the
folds of her robe because, as far as freedom
goes, she is "The Keeper Of The Flame!"
And, thus, I rewrote it to be written as it is above.
And this poem was also published on my "Paul Whiting — A Creative Writer" blog (please see the hyperlink below for the blog), since I feel that the message in this poem applies to the message that I am trying to convey through "Paul Whiting — A Creative Writer."
This poem was written in Portland, Oregon.
-Paulee
https://paulwhitingwriting.blogspot.com
This "Small All White in the Forest" Post No. 117 was edited on April 15th, 2024.
"Poetry is using the fewest words possible in order to describe all that is possible to describe." –Paul Whiting [June 1st, 2022]
