Classic Poem

I who sing this, am of no land:
For though my heart is fondest of one land,
Yet is this fondness truer because I love all lands,
I hate the sin of mine own flesh and blood;
And love the virtues of mine enemy.
I am of England only as England is of truth.
I am of France only as France is virtuous.
I am of Germany only as Germany is clean.
I burned my last sad, prejudice but yesterday:
Now am I free to speak, being of no land.
'Twas no pure fount of pride bade me prefer
A bloated Saxon, heavy with his wine,
To sad-faced Bedouins; fasting and at prayer.
Brother of France, brother of Germany, brother of the American States,
Brother of Italy, Russia, Iceland and Japan,
Comrade of the most unknown isle,
If thou art true, then, art thou more to me
Than one in mine own kingdom who is false.
In war my sword would urge its gleaming thrust,
With better play, through traitors at my side
Than at true-hearted foes.
I have seen dark-skinned men with great pathetic eyes,
And have cheered coarse, dull, white wretches who slew them.
And in those days I called myself a patriot.
Now am I patriot to the kind deeds of a Brahmin;
To all that assists the ultimate ends of harmony
In the wild songs of savages; to the good in everything.
My flag is sewn by the fast shuttle of feet
Wherever, and whenever, good Samaritans tread the highway.
My National Anthem is the Silence of Universal Peace.
I love the sound of the breaking of bread, in India,
Better, far better, than the sob of waves
That kiss iron keels at Cowes.
I am more of America than I am of Canada:
I am more of the World than I am of America:
I am more of the Universe than I am of the World.
No creed have I nor know I any law that is evil.
I am one of the hosts of Barbary;
And even the clouds oppress my expansion of soul.
If I were given three things to damn
I would damn creed three times.
If I were given three more things to damn
I would damn creed three more times.
For had a creed been damned in India's dawn
The Ganges ne'er had known its human cry.
And O, the blue eyed Irish, but for creed,
Would lead the march of nations. You have asked:
When will come Brotherhood? When will come the Christ?
And I reply: not until creeds are one
With the vain dust of their own temples.

The greatest teacher is he who comes both to learn and to teach.
Go Methodist, or Baptist, into Burma; say:
" I come, my brown-skinned brother to learn from thee
All that thou hast of truth: I come to give
All that I know of Good. "
Strange, when the garnishments are torn away,
How like the Gods of other nations are
Unto my God.

I would build high a fire,
Whose tongue would sear the silver on the stars;
And for my fuel would gather scripts of creeds,
Worm eaten altars, and the robes of priests,
And treaty parchments brown, and pitiless swords,
And all that militates against the Brotherhood.
And to the warmth would I call Esquimaux,
And Hottentots, and Englanders, and Arabs:
And there, while eyes grew eloquent and tongues mute,
I would assemble all the hosts of Barbary.

Listen to me, O warring tribes of Earth:
I am no longer of any land or of any creed.
I am a patriot to the kind deeds of a Brahmin,
To the good impulse of the lowest-scaled Pagan.
So would'st thou join me, comrade, test thy heart;
And if those chambers harbor no malice;
And if thou hast swept them clean of prejudice;
And if thou art ready to slay a creed at God's command —
Even a creed which thou lovest as Abraham loved Isaac —
Then, the hosts of Barbary await thy company.