Laborer’s Thoughts, The

We are born Men, to whom high thoughts are given,
    Heroic hearts, and souls of manly worth;
Why do we bend our foreheads to the earth, 
    And yield the kingly heritage of Heaven? 
Why tame to deadness the keen eye whose levin
    Flashed hot rebuke, when loathed Oppression's girth
    Galled the flayed bosom? Why this utter dearth 
Of human valor, — strength that might have riven 
Our chains, and taught the oppressors what it is
    To do and suffer tyranny, and how deep 
And sheer before them yawns the wide abyss.
    Where Ruin garners what the Avengers reap;
Rouse! we've a weapon now more sure than steel, 
Strike home a mightier blow than fleshly arm can deal !

What! had we not the nerve, when silk-soft hands 
    Put on the yoke, to dash the Insulter down; 
    Was it Forgiveness, that we bore the frown
Of our proud masters, till'd their teeming lands,
And stooped unmurmuring to their hard commands,
    Till toil and scorn and suffering had grown
    Familiar to us as our own hearth-stone,
And time was marked with falling tears for sands? 
But we were POOR, and out of our own want
    And natural love, they forged the links we wear;
They knew how Beggary and keen Famine daunt

    A Father's heart, and drive him to despair; 
We had but starving babes, and hands to toil, — 
They had the hoarded wealth, the wisdom, and the soil .

But now we know what right belongs to man.
    A Child's birthright to walk God's earth and live. — 
    And learning this hath taught us to forgive.
For we are brothers. What we must we can
Suffer, in meekness, till our free breath fan 
    Our wrongs away, than clouds more fugitive : 
    And we will breathe it, till the mountains give
Our voice to Heaven, and Heaven through all its span
Resound our challenge to the hoary ill,
    Whose life, fore-doomed, shall feel it like the fire
That cleaves thick midnight with electric thrill : 
    Brave hearts shall leap to hear their dumb desire
Mount Heaven in words, claiming the long-sought Good,
When Wealth and Toil unite in one free Brotherhood.

In Love and Wisdom let us win, for all,
    What loveless cunning gave the stronger few; 
    Not for one eye doth Heaven spread its blue, 
Green Earth her beauty, and the russet Fall 
Gem with ripe fruits her golden coronal; — 
    All eyes should own delight in every hue. 
    All hands should claim the glad task to renew 
Earth's fleeting bounties, and no hunger-call 
Go forth unanswered : One broad heritage
    God gives his children, and to us a power 
To make delightful the wide war we wage
    On Want and ill — through which we win the dower 
Of strength, true manhood, and quick sympathy, 
Things which shall set, at last, Man and his Labor free.