THE LOTUS-PLANTER. BY THEODORE TILTON.

A BRAHMIN on a Lotus-pod
Once wrote the holy name of God.
Then planting it, he asked in prayer
For some new fruit, unknown and fair.
A Slave near by, who bore a load,
Fell fainting on the dusty road.
The Brahmin, pitying, straightaway ran
And lifted up the fallen man.
The deed scarce done he stood aghast
At touching one beneath his caste.
“Behold!” he cried, “I am unclean;
My hands have clasped the vile and mean!”
God saw the shadow on his face,
And wrought a miracle of grace.
The buried seed arose from death,
And bloomed and fruited at HIS breath.
The stalk bore up a leaf of green,
Whereon these mystic words were seen:
“FIRST, COUNT MEN ALL OF EQUAL CASTE –
THEN, COUNT YOURSELF AS LEAST AND LAST.”
The Brahmin, with bewildered brain,
Beheld the will of God writ plain.
Transfigured then in sudden light,
The Slave stood sacred in his sight!
Thereafter in the Brahmin’s breast
Abode God’s peace, and He was blest.

Title:The Lotus-Planter

Author:Theodore Tilton

Publication:The Blackburn Times

Published in:Blackburn

Date:April 25, 1863

Keywords:politics, religion, slavery

Commentary

This poem by Theodore Tilton uses the thematic trope of orientalism to makes it abolitionist argument. Perhaps what marks this out as unusual as an anti-slavery text of this time is that the moral justification comes from what may be a Christian monotheistic ‘God’ to a Hindu, the ‘Brahmin’. The story certainly seems to echo the tale of the ‘Good Samaritan’. This can either be read as an attempt to universalise anti-slavery morality or to impose western religious authority on an eastern subject. In any case, the imagery here is unusual, as is the formal presentation in stanzaic couplets. – SR