Arise! A Song of Labour

From the long sleep of centuries,
Rise, arise !
Ye will be men at last, not slaves,
From your cradles to your graves ;
Life is dawning in your eyes ;
Arise !

Weary children of the soil,
Who toil and toil !
Patient millions of night.
Turn worn faces to the light.
Piteous hunger in dim eyes.
Arise !

Miserable, dumb, and blind.
Of humankind !
With divinest discontent
Stony souls at last are rent.
Human souls immersed and bowed
In the dark dull earth ye ploughed !
From brute suffering ye break ;
Awake !

Murmur men who rule you, scared :
" What ! ye dared,
Doltish bovine bondsmen, ye !
To claim, with accents of the free,
P'or yourselves, and babes, and wives.
Human lives ! "

Mummied princelin; of the past,
Ecclesiast,
Shopman, overshadowing shires.
Dining delega;es, and squires,
A moneyed mob aghast and pale.
Rant and rail :

"Who told you, scum of all the earth !
And dashed our mirth ?
Who told you, rebels, that ye grovel
Hungry and cold in many a hovel.
Or that the famine of your wage
Tortures old age ?

" Who told you ? let him drown for this.
With our bliss !
We, though we leave you ignorant,
Lest ye behold a yawning want.
Doled you gracious doles, and gave
Ghostly cheer to keep you brave ;
Yea, paupers, and we dug your grave !
Ye rave ! "

Stalwart, sturdy sons of toil.
Ne'er recoil !
Dare they threaten violence?
Form your phalanx deep and dense !
What though tyrants always cry,
When God consumes their tyranny,
" Dare not rouse you from your swound ;
Heaven's order ye confound ! "
Never fear ; be calm, be wise I
Holy fire inflame your eyes !
God shall smite your enemies :
Arise !