Poets, poems, and creative discovery
Welcome to Poetry.com
Poetry.com brings together poets from every corner of the world to share, discover, and celebrate the written word. Whether you're writing your first verse or refining your craft, you'll find a welcoming community ready to read your work and share theirs.
Exsurrectio Multitudinis
The iron wheels keep turning still,
they grind both bone and bread,
while gilded men in marble halls
grow fat where children bled...
and every coin their fingers clutch,
each gleaming throne they claim,
was forged from nameless,
broken backs, and sealed in human pain.
Yet still the weary masses bow,
their spirits taught to yield,
while truth lies bleeding in the dust
of every ravaged field;
for fear has always been the chain
wrapped tightly round the poor,
and silence built the towering walls
that guard oppression’s door.
But hear the city’s endless roar,
beneath the market’s cry,
there stirs within forgotten hearts
a fire that will not die…
a pulse beneath the pavement stones,
a thunder drawing near,
the sound of long-submitted souls
outgrowing ancient fear.
Arise, ye battered multitudes,
ye burdened and betrayed,
ye builders of another’s wealth
who perish in its shade...
arise before your children learn
to kiss the hand that drains,
before the last of human warmth
is strangled out by chains.
For they divide you expertly
through color, creed, and tongue,
lest those brought low by suffering
remember they are one;
they feed you fear, they feed you rage,
they turn your eyes aside,
while avarice sits crowned in gold
and feeds upon your lives.
And everywhere the hollow men
speak grandly of the free,
while forging vast cathedrals
to control and tyranny;
they cloak their theft in banners,
they sanctify their greed,
then brand the broken dangerous
for naming what they see.
But no empire fed by suffering
escapes the hand of time,
and no amount of polished lies
can make corruption divine;
for every tower built on pain,
however high it climbs,
already bears within its stones
the fractures of decline.
So let your conscience be the drum
that echoes through the night,
and let your voice become the storm
that tears apart the lie;
for tyrants never fear the dead,
nor those who crawl in dread,
they fear the soul that breaks the yoke,
no longer bowed or led.
Though weariness may grip your bones,
though sorrow clouds your gaze,
far better still to rise and bleed
than rot in shackled days;
for somewhere underneath the ash,
beneath despair and scars,
the dignity they sought to crush
still burns within your heart.
Thus rise, ye weary multitudes,
let apathy now cease,
for justice isn't granted
by the powerful in peace;
it lives wherever common souls
refuse to crawl or hide.
So rise before the chains grow tight
and hold your flame against the night.
About this poem
Exsurrectio Multitudinis, The Rising of the Multitudes, frames this poem as a chronicle of ordinary people awakening to their own collective power. In Latin, exsurrectio evokes both physical uprising and moral emergence, while multitudinis refers to the vast, anonymous masses whose labor sustains empires. Together, the title reflects the poem’s central arc; the movement from oppression and silence toward unity, conscience, and defiance. It echoes the severity of Roman history while subverting imperial grandeur by placing dignity in the hands of those long forced to bow. My use of elevated language, biblical and liturgical diction, and Romanticist structure in Exsurrectio Multitudinis is deliberate. It's not an attempt to imitate the past or merely sound poetic. The language itself is part of the poem’s argument. My work fuses classical poetic architecture with contemporary sociopolitical critique. Drawing structural inspiration from Percy Bysshe Shelley and the broader tradition of Romantic protest literature, I use poetry as philosophical inquiry and moral summons, confronting alienation, disenchantment, institutional power, and the invisible tyrannies of modern life. The elevated register allows contemporary suffering to be removed from the sterile vocabulary of statistics, policy, economics, and technology. Poverty becomes more than a percentage; exploitation becomes more than an economic condition; compliance becomes more than a corporate expectation. Liturgical cadence turns observation into lament, lament into accusation, and accusation into summons. My archaic and prophetic language is therefore intentional. It creates distance from the familiar language of advertising, political rhetoric, and digital culture so that what has become normalized can be seen anew. The Romanticist influence serves the same purpose. I borrow the language of prophecy, procession, allegory, and moral rebellion to examine distinctly modern mechanisms of control... optimization, distraction, conformity, consumer sedation, and technological dependence. Thus, the language of Exsurrectio Multitudinis reaches backward in order to confront the present. The elevated language isn't an escape from contemporary reality; it's my method of confronting it. more »
- 2:26 min read
- 564 Views
Quick analysis
View full analysis »
21 fans
Translation
Find a translation for this poem in other languages:
Select another language:
- - Select -
- 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
- 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
- Español (Spanish)
- Esperanto (Esperanto)
- 日本語 (Japanese)
- Português (Portuguese)
- Deutsch (German)
- العربية (Arabic)
- Français (French)
- Русский (Russian)
- ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
- 한국어 (Korean)
- עברית (Hebrew)
- Gaeilge (Irish)
- Українська (Ukrainian)
- اردو (Urdu)
- Magyar (Hungarian)
- मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
- Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Italiano (Italian)
- தமிழ் (Tamil)
- Türkçe (Turkish)
- తెలుగు (Telugu)
- ภาษาไทย (Thai)
- Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
- Čeština (Czech)
- Polski (Polish)
- Românește (Romanian)
- Nederlands (Dutch)
- Ελληνικά (Greek)
- Latinum (Latin)
- Svenska (Swedish)
- Dansk (Danish)
- Suomi (Finnish)
- فارسی (Persian)
- ייִדיש (Yiddish)
- հայերեն (Armenian)
- Norsk (Norwegian)
- English (English)
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Poetry.com" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LTD, 2026. Web. 15 Sep. 2026. <https://www.poetry.com/>.
Share Your Thoughts — Earn Rewards!
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In