O why and for what are we waiting?  While our brothers droop and die,
And on every wind of the heavens a wasted life goes by.

How long shall they reproach us where crowd on crowd they dwell,
Poor ghosts of the wicked city, the gold-crushed hungry hell?

Through squalid life they laboured, in sordid grief they died,
Those sons of a mighty mother, those props of England’s pride.

They are gone; there is none can undo it, nor save our souls from the curse;
But many a million cometh, and shall they be better or worse?

It is we must answer and hasten, and open wide the door
For the rich man’s hurrying terror, and the slow-foot hope of the poor.

Yea, the voiceless wrath of the wretched, and their unlearned discontent,
We must give it voice and wisdom till the waiting-tide be spent.

Come, then, since all things call us, the living and the dead,
And o’er the weltering tangle a glimmering light is shed.

Come, then, let us cast off fooling, and put by ease and rest,
For the CAUSE alone is worthy till the good days bring the best.

Ah! come, cast off all fooling, for this, at least, we know:
That the Dawn and the Day is coming, and forth the Banners go.

I heard men saying, Leave hope and praying,
   All days shall be as all have been;
To-day and to-morrow bring fear and sorrow,
   The never-ending toil between.

When Earth was younger mid toil and hunger,
   In hope we strove, and our hands were strong;
Then great men led us, with words they fed us,
   And bade us right the earthly wrong.

Go read in story their deeds and glory,
   Their names amidst the nameless dead;
Turn then from lying to us slow-dying
   In that good world to which they led;

Where fast and faster our iron master,
   The thing we made, for ever drives,
Bids us grind treasure and fashion pleasure
   For other hopes and other lives.

Who now shall lead us, what god shall heed us
   As we lie in the hell our hands have won?
For us are no rulers but fools and befoolers,
   The great are fallen, the wise men gone.

I heard men saying, Leave tears and praying,
   The sharp knife heedeth not the sheep;
Are we not stronger than the rich and the wronger,
   When day breaks over dreams and sleep?

Come, shoulder to shoulder ere the world grows older!
   Help lies in nought but thee and me;
Hope is before us, the long years that bore us
   Bore leaders more than men may be.

Let dead hearts tarry and trade and marry,
   And trembling nurse their dreams of mirth,
While we the living our lives are giving
   To bring the bright new world to birth.

Come, shoulder to shoulder ere earth grows older
   The Cause spreads over land and sea;
Now the world shaketh, and fear awaketh
   And joy at last for thee and me.

Saith man to man, We’ve heard and known
   That we no master need
To live upon this earth, our own,
   In fair and manly deed.
The grief of slaves long passed away
   For us hath forged the chain,
Till now each worker’s patient day
   Builds up the House of Pain.

And we, shall we too, crouch and quail,
   Ashamed, afraid of strife,
And lest our lives untimely fail
   Embrace the Death in Life?
Nay, cry aloud, and have no fear,
   We few against the world;
Awake, arise! the hope we bear
   Against the curse is hurled.

It grows and grows—are we the same,
   The feeble band, the few?
Or what are these with eyes aflame,
   And hands to deal and do?
This is the host that bears the word,
   No Master high or low—
A lightning flame, a shearing sword,
   A storm to overthrow.

Hear a word, a word in season, for the day is drawing nigh,
When the Cause shall call upon us, some to live, and some to die!

He that dies shall not die lonely, many an one hath gone before;
He that lives shall bear no burden heavier than the life they bore.

Nothing ancient is their story, e’en but yesterday they bled,
Youngest they of earth’s beloved, last of all the valiant dead.

E’en the tidings we are telling was the tale they had to tell,
E’en the hope that our hearts cherish, was the hope for which they fell.

In the grave where tyrants thrust them, lies their labour and their pain,
But undying from their sorrow springeth up the hope again.

Mourn not therefore, nor lament it, that the world outlives their life;
Voice and vision yet they give us, making strong our hands for strife.

Some had name, and fame, and honour, learn’d they were, and wise and strong;
Some were nameless, poor, unlettered, weak in all but grief and wrong.

Named and nameless all live in us; one and all they lead us yet
Every pain to count for nothing, every sorrow to forget.

“Fair the crown the Cause hath for you, well to die or well to live
Through the battle, through the tangle, peace to gain or peace to give.”

Ah, it may be!  Oft meseemeth, in the days that yet shall be,
When no slave of gold abideth ’twixt the breadth of sea to sea,

Oft, when men and maids are merry, ere the sunlight leaves the earth,
And they bless the day beloved, all too short for all their mirth,

Some shall pause awhile and ponder on the bitter days of old,
Ere the toil of strife and battle overthrew the curse of gold;

Then ’twixt lips of loved and lover solemn thoughts of us shall rise;
We who once were fools and dreamers, then shall be the brave and wise.

There amidst the world new-builded shall our earthly deeds abide,
Though our names be all forgotten, and the tale of how we died.

Life or death then, who shall heed it, what we gain or what we lose?
Fair flies life amid the struggle, and the Cause for each shall choose.

Hear a word, a word in season, for the day is drawing nigh,
When the Cause shall call upon us, some to live, and some to die!

What is this, the sound and rumour?  What is this that all men hear,
Like the wind in hollow valleys when the storm is drawing near,
Like the rolling on of ocean in the eventide of fear?
         ’Tis the people marching on.

Whither go they, and whence come they?  What are these of whom ye tell?
In what country are they dwelling ’twixt the gates of heaven and hell?
Are they mine or thine for money?  Will they serve a master well?
         Still the rumour’s marching on.

      Hark the rolling of the thunder!
      Lo the sun! and lo thereunder
      Riseth wrath, and hope, and wonder,
         And the host comes marching on.

Forth they come from grief and torment; on they wend toward health and mirth,
All the wide world is their dwelling, every corner of the earth.
Buy them, sell them for thy service!  Try the bargain what ’tis worth,
         For the days are marching on.

      Hark the rolling of the thunder!
      Lo the sun! and lo thereunder
      Riseth wrath, and hope, and wonder,
         And the host comes marching on.

Many a hundred years passed over have they laboured deaf and blind;
Never tidings reached their sorrow, never hope their toil might find.
Now at last they’ve heard and hear it, and the cry comes down the wind,
         And their feet are marching on.

O ye rich men hear and tremble! for with words the sound is rife:
“Once for you and death we laboured; changed henceforward is the strife.
We are men, and we shall battle for the world of men and life;
         And our host is marching on.”

      Hark the rolling of the thunder!
      Lo the sun! and lo thereunder
      Riseth wrath, and hope, and wonder,
         And the host comes marching on.

“Is it war, then?  Will ye perish as the dry wood in the fire?
Is it peace?  Then be ye of us, let your hope be our desire.
Come and live! for life awaketh, and the world shall never tire;
         And hope is marching on.

      Hark the rolling of the thunder!
      Lo the sun! and lo thereunder
      Riseth wrath, and hope, and wonder,
         And the host comes marching on.

Come, comrades, come, your glasses clink;
Up with your hands a health to drink,
The health of all that workers be,
In every land, on every sea.
   And he that will this health deny,
   Down among the dead men, down among the dead men,
   Down, down, down, down,
   Down among the dead men let him lie!

Well done! now drink another toast,
And pledge the gath’ring of the host,
The people armed in brain and hand,
To claim their rights in every land.
   And he that will, etc.

There’s liquor left; come, let’s be kind,
And drink the rich a better mind,
That when we knock upon the door,
They may be off and say no more.
   And he that will, etc.

The Day?  Ah, friends, late grows the night;
Drink to the glimmering spark of light,
The herald of the joy to be,
The battle-torch of thee and me!
   And he that will, etc.

Take yet another cup in hand
And drink in hope our little band;
Drink strife in hope while lasteth breath,
And brotherhood in life and death;
   And he that will this health deny,
   Down among the dead men, down among the dead men,
   Down, down, down, down,
   Down among the dead men let him lie!

What cometh here from west to east awending?
And who are these, the marchers stern and slow?
We bear the message that the rich are sending
Aback to those who bade them wake and know.
Not one, not one, nor thousands must they slay,
But one and all if they would dusk the day.

We asked them for a life of toilsome earning,
They bade us bide their leisure for our bread;
We craved to speak to tell our woeful learning:
We come back speechless, bearing back our dead.
Not one, not one, nor thousands must they slay,
But one and all if they would dusk the day.

They will not learn; they have no ears to hearken.
They turn their faces from the eyes of fate;
Their gay-lit halls shut out the skies that darken.
But, lo! this dead man knocking at the gate.
Not one, not one, nor thousands must they slay,
But one and all if they would dusk the day.

THE WORKERS.

O Earth, once again cometh Spring to deliver
   Thy winter-worn heart, O thou friend of the Sun;
Fair blossom the meadows from river to river
   And the birds sing their triumph o’er winter undone.

O Earth, how a-toiling thou singest thy labour
   And upholdest the flower-crowned cup of thy bliss,
As when in the feast-tide drinks neighbour to neighbour
   And all words are gleeful, and nought is amiss.

But we, we, O Mother, through long generations,
   We have toiled and been fruitful, but never with thee
Might we raise up our bowed heads and cry to the nations
   To look on our beauty, and hearken our glee.

Unlovely of aspect, heart-sick and a-weary
   On the season’s fair pageant all dim-eyed we gaze;
Of thy fairness we fashion a prison-house dreary
   And in sorrow wear over each day of our days.

O children!  O toilers, what foemen beleaguer
   The House I have built you, the Home I have won?
Full great are my gifts, and my hands are all eager
   To fill every heart with the deeds I have done.

THE WORKERS.

The foemen are born of thy body, O Mother,
   In our shape are they shapen, their voice is the same;
And the thought of their hearts is as ours and no other;
   It is they of our own house that bring us to shame.

THE EARTH.

Are ye few?  Are they many?  What words have ye spoken
   To bid your own brethren remember the Earth?
What deeds have ye done that the bonds should be broken,
   And men dwell together in good-will and mirth?

THE WORKERS.

They are few, we are many: and yet, O our Mother,
   Many years were we wordless and nought was our deed,
But now the word flitteth from brother to brother:
   We have furrowed the acres and scattered the seed.

THE EARTH.

Then this shall I promise, that I am abiding
   The day of your triumph, the ending of gloom,
And no wealth that ye will then my hand shall be hiding
   And the tears of the spring into roses shall bloom.

Clad is the year in all her best,
   The land is sweet and sheen;
Now Spring with Summer at her breast,
   Goes down the meadows green.

Here are we met to welcome in
   The young abounding year,
To praise what she would have us win
   Ere winter draweth near.

For surely all is not in vain,
   This gallant show she brings;
But seal of hope and sign of gain,
   Beareth this Spring of springs.

No longer now the seasons wear
   Dull, without any tale
Of how the chain the toilers bear
   Is growing thin and frail.

But hope of plenty and goodwill
   Flies forth from land to land,
Nor any now the voice can still
   That crieth on the hand.

A little while, and then at last
   Shall the greetings of the year
Be blent with wonder of the past
   And all the griefs that were.

A little while, and they that meet
   The living year to praise,
Shall be to them as music sweet
   That grief of bye-gone days.

So be we merry to our best,
   Now the land is sweet and sheen,
And Spring with Summer at her breast
   Goes down the meadows green.

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
BY BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. LTD.
EDINBURGH AND LONDON