Proposed Dedication for a Monument to Lount and Matthews - Milton Acorn

This is Milt's poem for what has come to be called The Unfinished Monument - 
a group of us will visit the monument this Wed. evening, April 18th, at 6 pm - all invited!


This plaque was erected to the memory
of Samuel Lount, a blacksmith but not a simple one . . . who on
April 12th, 1838 was hanged here by ruthless imperialists
bureaucrats and class tyrants, for doing the best deed of his life
fighting for the freedom of his nation, Canada, and the
           working people : a freedom still unobtained

This man died for liberty
There is no need to fear his fate
He'd still, if he'd stayed wakeful late
Be sleeping these times anyway.

This plaque is also dedicated to the memory
of Peter Matthews, farmer, not simple either;
who at this same place, King and Toronto Streets,
          Toronto, Ontario, Canada
on the same day, at the same time of day
was legally murdered along with Lount
for committing the same rightful action.

Let those whose tribute to the powers they fear
Consists of a hopeless sigh, an sardonic jeer,
Know that freedom is the breath of the mind;

                    More to be desired

Than hearing to the deaf, sight to the blind;
A surer way of movement to the lame,
Without freedom, no one really has a name.



Milton Acorn
from More Poems For People
NC Press, 1972