| MY mother was for woman’s rights | |
| And my father was the rich miller at London Mills. | |
| I dreamed of the wrongs of the world and wanted to right them. | |
| When my father died, I set out to see peoples and countries | |
| In order to learn how to reform the world. | 5 |
| I traveled through many lands. | |
| I saw the ruins of Rome, | |
| And the ruins of Athens, | |
| And the ruins of Thebes. | |
| And I sat by moonlight amid the necropolis of Memphis. | 10 |
| There I was caught up by wings of flame, | |
| And a voice from heaven said to me: | |
| “Injustice, Untruth destroyed them. Go forth! | |
| Preach Justice! Preach Truth!” | |
| And I hastened back to Spoon River | 15 |
| To say farewell to my mother before beginning my work. | |
| They all saw a strange light in my eye. | |
| And by and by, when I talked, they discovered | |
| What had come in my mind. | |
| Then Jonathan Swift Somers challenged me to debate | 20 |
| The subject, (I taking the negative): | |
| “Pontius Pilate, the Greatest Philosopher of the World.” | |
| And he won the debate by saying at last, | |
| “Before you reform the world, Mr. Tutt, | |
| Please answer the question of Pontius Pilate: | 25 |
| ‘What is Truth?’” | |
