John Brown's Body (poem)

Spread over it the bloodstained flag of his song, For the sun to bleach, the wind and the birds to tear, The snow to cover over with a pure fleece And the New England cloud to work upon With the grey absolution of its slow, most lilac-smelling rain, Until there is nothing there That ever knew a master or a slave Or, brooding on the symbol of a wrong, Threw down the irons in the field of peace.

John Brown's Body (1928) is an American epic poem written by Stephen Vincent Benét.

The poem's title references the radical abolitionist John Brown, who raided the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia in October 1859.

[4] The poem was performed on Broadway in 1953 in a staged dramatic reading starring Tyrone Power, Judith Anderson, and Raymond Massey, and directed by Charles Laughton.

[5] The 2013 documentary film John Brown's Body at San Quentin Prison recounts the story of the production of the play.