Lucian B. Watkins, "A Message to the Modern Pharoahs" (1919)
("Loose him and let him go"-John 11:44 )
"Loose him! "--this man on whom you plod
Beneath your heel hate-iron-shod;
His silent sorrow troubles God--
"Let him go!"
There will be plagues, wars will not cease,--
There cannot be a lasting peace
Until this being you release--
"Let him go!"
Each doomful kingdom-throne and crown
Built on the lowly fettered down,
Shall perish--lo, the heavens frown--
"Let him go!"
Naught but a name is Liberty,
Naught but a name-Democracy,
Till love has made each mortal free--
"Let him go!"
"Loose him! " He has his part to play
In Life's Great Drama, day by day,-
He has his mission, God's own way,--
"Let him go!"
"Loose him!" 'Twill be your master rôle,
Twill be your triumph and your goal:
Twill be the saving of your soul--
"Let him go!"
-Lucian B. Watkins in the Richmond Planet .
Also published in Robert Kerlin's Voice of the Negro 1919