Poems of power [electronic text]

About this Item

Title
Poems of power [electronic text]
Author
Wilcox, Ella Wheeler, 1850-1919
Publication
Chicago: W. B. Conkey Company
c 1908
Rights/Permissions

The University of Michigan Library provides access to these materials for educational and research purposes. These materials are in the public domain in the United States. If you have questions about the collection please contact Digital Content & Collections at dlps-help@umich.edu, or if you have concerns about the inclusion of an item in this collection, please contact Library Information Technology at LibraryIT-info@umich.edu.

DPLA Rights Statement: No Copyright - United States

Cite this Item
"Poems of power [electronic text]." In the digital collection American Verse Project. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/a/amverse/BAP5370.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed March 28, 2024.

Pages

THE CHAIN.

MEN have outgrown the worthless creed, Which bade them deem it God's good will, That labor sweat and starve to fill, And glut the purse of idle greed.
They have outgrown the poor content That breeds oppression. Forged by pain, Mind links with mind in one great chain Of protest and of argument.
And by the hand of progress hurled, This mighty chain of human thought, In silence and in anguish wrought, Encompasses the pulsing world.
And he who will not form a link Of new conditions soon to be, Ere long must stand aghast to see, Old systems toppling down the brink.
They cannot and they shall not last. The broader impulse of the day Will gain and grow and sweep away The rank injustice of the past.
The purport of the hour is vast. The world needs justice. It demands

Page 77

United hearts, united hands. The day of charity is past.
Let no man think he can despoil And rob his kind by trick and fraud, And at the last make peace with God By tossing alms to honest toil.
More labor for the selfish few; More leisure for the burdened mass; These things shall surely come to pass, As old conditions change to new.
They change thro' strain and strike and strife, The worst but speeds the final best, Work for all men —for all men rest, And time to taste the joys of life.
Do you have questions about this content? Need to report a problem? Please contact us.