Tom Paine
An Englishman was Thomas Paine
Who bled for liberty;
But while his fight was far from vain
He died in poverty:
Though some are of the sober thinking
'Twas due to drinking.
Yet this is what appeals to me:
Cobbet, a friend, loved him so well
He sailed across the surly sea
To raw and rigid New Rochelle:
With none to say: 'Take him not from us!'
He raped the grave of Thomas.
And in his library he set
These bones so woe-begone;
I have no doubt his eyes were wet
To scan that skeleton.
That grinning skull from which in season
Emerged the Age of Reason.
Then Cobbet in his turn lay dead,
And auctioneering tones
Over his chattels rudely said:
'Who wants them bloody bones?'
None did, so they were scattered far
And God knows where they are.
A friend of Franklin and of Pitt
He lived a stormy span;
The flame of liberty he lit
And rang the Rights of Man.
Yet pilgrims from Vermont and Maine
In hero worship seek in vain
The bones of Thomas Paine.
poem by Robert William Service
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Related quotes
I fear not, I see not reason for fear. In the end we will be the victors. For though at times the flame of liberty may cease to shine, the ember will never expire.
quote by Thomas Paine
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.
quote by Thomas Paine
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How I longed to see these things; how I longed to see the Liberty Bell and walk on the streets where Thomas Jefferson, Tom Paine and Benjamin Franklin had walked.
Such is the irresistible nature of truth that all it asks, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing.
quote by Thomas Paine
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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But such is the irresistable nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants is the liberty of appearing.
quote by Thomas Paine
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He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.
quote by Thomas Paine
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He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.
quote by Thomas Paine
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.
quote by Thomas Paine
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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My Skeleton, My Rival
Interesting that I have to live with my skeleton.
It stands, prepared to emerge, and I carry it
with me—this other thing I will become at death,
and yet it keeps me erect and limber in my walk,
my rival.
What will the living see of me
if they should open my grave but my bones
that will stare at them through hollow sockets
and bared teeth.
I write this to warn my friends
not to be shocked at my changed attitude
toward them, but to be aware
that I have it in me to be someone
other than I am, and I write to ask forgiveness
that death is not wholesome for friendships,
that bones do not talk, have no quarrel with me,
do not even know I exist.
A machine called skeleton will take my place
in the minds of others when I am dead
among the living, and that machine
will make it obvious that I have died
to be identified by bones
that have no speech, no thought, no mind
to speak of having let themselves be carried
once around in me, as at my service
at the podium or as I lay beside my love
or when I held my child at birth
or embraced a friend or shook a critic's hand
or held a pen to sign a check or book
or wrote a farewell letter to a love
or held my penis at the bowl
or lay my hand upon my face at the mirror
and approved of it.
There is Ignatow, it will be said,
looking down inside the open grave.
I'll be somewhere in my poems, I think,
to be mistaken for my bones, but There's Ignatow
will be said. I say to those who persist,
just read what I have written.
I'll be there, held together by another kind
of structure, of thought and imagery,
mind and matter, love and longing, tensions
opposite, such as the skeleton requires
to stand upright, to move with speed,
to sit with confidence, my friend the skeleton
and I its friend, shielding it from harm.
poem by David Ignatow
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To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.
quote by Thomas Paine
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Skeleton Dance
The moon is on the graveyard,
The night is cool and still,
The wind blows gently,
Yes it blows where it will,
And the slightest sound,
From a place that's unknown,
Come do the skeleton dance,
And rattle my bones.
Do the skeleton dance
Jingle jangle bones,
Do the skeleton dance
All the way back home,
Do the skeleton dance
When you're all alone,
Do the skeleton dance
When you're done with your bones.
See the eyes of a werewolf,
Staring back at you,
A dozen or two skeletons,
Make up the rest of the crew,
The zombies stumble around,
Looking for their brains,
Ghost float like a mist,
And its about to rain.
Do the skeleton dance
Jingle jangle bones,
Do the skeleton dance
All the way back home,
Do the skeleton dance
When you're all alone,
Do the skeleton dance
When you're done with your bones.
The devil takes off his skin,
And plays the xylophone,
God plays the piano,
On a stool made of bone,
Jesus lights a lantern,
Buddha counts to three,
They all form a circle,
To do the skeleton dance with me.
poem by Blaine McCanless
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To say that any people are not fit for freedom, is to make poverty their choice, and to say they had rather be loaded with taxes than not.
quote by Thomas Paine
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Time makes more converts than reason.
quote by Thomas Paine
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Party In My Bones
party in my bones
I'm shuffling down on the street
this cold night laid me bare
I'm going down with the stream
into the city's blare
Passing by the hooker's row tempting lips,
oh burning curse
Hey babe save yourself for tomorrow
keep your passion in your purse
Came on! I can hear those crazy tones
If I can't find a party,
I'll have a party in my bones
I'm spinning round and round
around my tattooed bones
The dreams are razed to the ground
and covered with heavy stones
Passing by the junky's square
it feels so dizzy, feels so gay
A giddy sniff from the air
and I'm dating fairies right away
Come on! I can hear those crazy tones
If I can't find a party,
I'll have a party in my bones
I'm falling outta my skin
into the midnight glass
The shade of human sin
is walking on magic grass
Bright morning makes me sober
twilight's gone it seems so dull
I fall prey to the brandy soaked suburb
Hey, pour some brandy in my skull!
Come on! I can hear those crazy tones
If I can't find a party,
I'll have a party in my bones
song performed by by Quimby
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The most formidable weapon against errors of every kind is reason.
quote by Thomas Paine
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Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it.
quote by Thomas Paine
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right.
quote by Thomas Paine
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Emotional
loneliness seeps through my bones,
wondering,
there is no hope,
screaming sorrow in my brain,
hopelessness,
all in vain,
come with sorrow,
equals pain,
emptiness all in my head,
wondering,
when ill be dead,
broke my bones,
and,
bled me dry,
I just hope,
nobody saw me cry,
carelessness in my blood,
i am now,
face down in mud,
cornered in my mind,
restlessness,
i have now,
run out of time.
poem by Alicia Roseberry
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Ghost-Cycle
They argue and fight over dead bones,
One of them is a skull making him ill.
There is utter disbelief, just decaying bones
Ready for burial like no other corpse.
Some say it will grow and inhibit us
By rejecting our ways and entering our affairs.
Some say we see and hear everything it says,
But the deceit is maximum, all the time
That we find it invisible from some satanic source.
Since the universe follows laws too special
It, the corpse, betrays us and its task
To fail as bones and so it goes on in the cycle.
poem by Naveed Akram
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There are two distinct classes of what are called thoughts: those that we produce in ourselves by reflection and the act of thinking and those that bolt into the mind of their own accord.
quote by Thomas Paine
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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