Free Speech

"Protest" is a poem about the utility of free speech when confronting injustice and inequality. Protected by the first amendment to the constitution, the right to protest is hailed by the speaker of the poem as the only true tool at the average citizen's disposal for effecting change and progress. The speaker sees protest in the form of free speech not just as a right, however, but also as a political necessity. "To sin by silence, when we should protest," the poem begins, "Makes cowards out of men" (1-2). Immediately, the poem opens with a critique of anyone who acts complacent in the face of inequality. The speaker raises the stakes of this silence by declaring that it is a sin, introducing a biblical element to the poem and conflating one's political responsibility with a moral imperative to act. The beginning of the poem features...