Labour! labour! labour! toil! toil! toil!
With the wearing of the bone and the drowning of the mind;
Sink like shrivelled parchment in the flesh-devouring soil;
And die, when ye have shouted it till centuries shall hear!
Pass away unheeded like the waving of the wind!
Build the marble palace! sound the hollow fame!
Be the trodden pathway for a conqueror’s career!
Exhale your million breathings to elevate one name!
And die, when ye have shouted it till centuries shall hear!
“By right divine we rule ye. God made ye but for us!”
Thus cry the lords of nations to the slaves whom they subdue.
Unclasp God’s book of nature-its writings read not thus!
Hear! tramplers of the millions!-Hear! benders to the few!
God gave us hearts of ardour-God gave us noble forms-
And God has poured around us his paradise of light!
Has he bade us sow the sunshine, and only reap the storms?
Created us in glory, to pass away in night?
No! say the sunny heavens, that smile on all alike;
The waves, that upbear navies, yet hold them in their thrall;
No! shouts the dreadful thunder, that teaches us to strike
The proud, for one usurping, what the Godhead meant for all.
No! no! we cry united by our suffering’s mighty length:
Ye-ye have ruled for ages-now we will rule as well!
No! no! we cry triumphant in our right’s resistless strength;
We-we will share your heaven-or ye shall share our hell!
(Ernest Jones)
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Based on Topics: God Poems, Night Poems, Light Poems, Mind Poems, Name Poems, Success Poems, Work & Career Poems, Fame Poems, Hell Poems, Labor PoemsBased on Keywords: unclasp, elevate, we-we, upbear, benders, ages-now, heaven-or, tramplers, flesh-devouring, ardour-god, ye-ye
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