Francis William Lauderdale Adams

. . . One rises now and speaks: "The Cause is one -
    Labour o'er all the earth! Shan't we, then, share
With these, whose very flesh and blood's our own,
    All that we can of what we have and are?

"What is it that their work is in the earth,
    Down in its depths, and ours is on the sea?
The fight they fight is ours; their worth our worth;
    Their loss our loss. We help them! They are we!

"We help them! - Ay, and when our hour too breaks,
    And on to every ship that ploughs the wave
We put our hand at last, our hand that takes
    Its own, will they forget the help we gave?

"And, if our robber lords would rob us still
    With the foul hoard of beasts without a soul,
They may find leprous hands to work their will,
    But, for thei...

I see a land of desperate droughts and floods:
I see a land where need keeps spreading round,
And all but giants perish in the stress:
I see a land where more, and more, and more
The demons, Earth and Wealth, grow bloat and strong.

I see a land that lies a helpless prey
To wealthy cliques and gamblers and their slaves,
The huckster politicians: a poor land
That less and less can make her heart-wish law.

Yea, but I see a land where some few brave
Raise clear eyes to the Struggle that must come,
Reaching firm hands to draw the doubters in,
Preaching the gospel: "Drill and drill and drill!"
Yea, but I see a land where best of all
The hope of victory burns strong and bright!

SHE. - "Up and down, up and down,
            From early eve to early day.
        Life is quicker in the town;
            When you've leisure, anyway!

        "Down and up, down and up!
            O will no one stop and speak?
        I would really like to sup,
            And my limbs are heavy and weak.

        "What's my price, sir? I'm no Jew.
            If with me you wish to sleep,
        'Tis five francs, sir. Surely you
            Will admit that that is cheap?"

HE. - "Christ, if you are not stone blind,
        Stone deaf also, you know it is
    Christian towns leave far behind
        Sodom and thos...

Let him who toils, enjoy
    Fruit of his toiling.
Let him whom sweats annoy,
    No more be spoiling.

For we would have it be
    That, weak or stronger,
Not he who works, but he
    Who works not, hunger!

"The foxes have holes,
And the birds of the air have nests,
But where shall the heads of the sons of men
Be laid, be laid?"

"Where the cold corpse rests,
Where the sightless moles
Burrow and yet cannot make it afraid,
Rout but cannot wake it again,
There shall the heads of the sons of men
Be laid, laid!"

He sits. Upon the kingly head doth rest
    The round-balled wimple, and the heavy rings
    Touch on the shoulders where the shadow clings.
The downward garment shows the ambiguous breast;
The face - that face one scarce can look on lest
    One learn the secret of unspeakable things;
    But the dread gaze descends with shudderings,
To the veiled couched knees, the hands and thumbs close-pressed.
O lidded, downcast eyes that bear the weight
    Of all our woes and terrible wrong's increase:
    Proud nostrils, lips proud-perfecter than these,
With what a soul within you do you wait!
Disdain and pity, love late-born of hate,
    Passion eternal, patience, pain and peace!

Who is it speaks of defeat? -
    I tell you a Cause like ours
Is greater than defeat can know;
    It is the power of powers!

As surely as the earth rolls round,
    As surely as the glorious sun
Brings the great world sea-wave,
    Must our Cause be won!

What is defeat to us? -
    Learn what a skirmish tells,
While the great Army marches on
    To storm earth's hells!

Bury him without a word!
    No appeal to death;
Only the call of the bird
    And the blind spring's breath.

Nature slays ten, yet the one
    Reaches but to a part
Of what's to be done, to be sung.
    Keep we a proud heart!

Let us not glose her waste
    With lies and dreams;
Fawn on her wanton haste,
    Say it but seems.

Comrades, with faces unstirred,
    Scorning grief's dole,
Though with him, with him lies interred
    Our heart and soul,

Bury him without a word!
    No appeal to death;
Only the call of the bird
    And the blind spring's breath.

When day's hard task's done,
    Eve's scant meal partaken,
Out we steal each one,
    Weariless, unshaken.

In small reeking squares,
    Garbaged plots, we gather,
Little knots and pairs,
    Brother, sister, father.

Then the word is given.
    In their silent places
Under lowering heaven,
    Range our stern-set faces.

Now we march and wheel
    In our clumsy line,
Shouldering sticks for steel,
    Thoughts like bitter brine!

Drill, drill, drill, and drill!
    It is only thus
Conquer yet we will
    Those who've conquered us.

Patience, sisters, mothers!
    We must not forget
Dear dead fathers, brothers;
    They must teach us yet.

In that hour we see,
    The hour of our desir...

In the chill grey summer dawn-light
    We pass through the empty streets;
The rattling wheels are all silent;
    No friend his fellow greets.

Here and there, at the corners,
    A man in a great-coat stands;
A bayonet hangs by his side, and
    A rifle is in his hands.

This is a conquered city;
    It speaks of war not peace;
And that's one of the English soldiers
    The English call "police."

You see, at the present moment
    That noble country of mine
Is boiling with indignation
    At the memory of a "crime."

In a path in the Phoenix Park where
    The children romped and ran,
An Irish ruffian met his doom,
    And an English gentleman.

For a hundred and over a hundred
    Years on the country side<...

Little elfin maid,
    Old, though scarce two years,
With your big dark hazel eyes
    Tenderer than tears,

And your rosebud mouth
    Lisping jocund things,
Breaking brooding silence with
    Wistful questionings!

Like a flower you grew
    While life's bright sun shone.
Does the greedy spendthrift earth
    Heed a flower is gone?

No; but Love's fond ken,
    That gropes through Death's strange ways,
Almost seems to hear your Voice,
    Seems to see your Face!

Where'er I go in this dense East,
    In sunshine or shade,
I retch at the villainous feast
    That England has made.

And my shame cannot understand,
    As scorn springs elate,
How I ever loved that land
    That now I hate!

This is a leader's tent. "Who gathers here?"
    Enter and see and listen. On the ground
Men sit or stand, enter or disappear,
    Dark faces and deep voices all around.

One answers you. "You ask who gathers here?
    Companions! Generals we have none, nor chief.
What need is there? The plan is all so clear -
    The future's hope, the present's grim relief!

"Food for us all, and clothes, and roofs come first.
    The means to gain them? This, our leaguered band!
The hatred of the robber rich accursed
    Keeps foes together, makes fools understand.

"Beyond the present's faith, the future's hope
    Points to the dawning hour when all shall be
But one. The man condemned shall fit the rope
    Around the hangman's neck, and both be free!

Beyond the night, down o'er the labouring East,
I see light's harbinger of dawn released:
Upon the false gleam of the ante-dawn,
Lo, the fair heaven of day-pursuing morn!

Beyond the lampless sleep and perishing death
That hold my heart, I feel my new life's breath,
I see the face my spirit-shape shall have
When this frail clay and dust have fled the grave.

Beyond the night, the death of doubt, defeat,
Rise dawn and morn, and life with light doth meet,
For the great Cause, too, - sure as the sun yon ray
Shoots up to strike the threatening clouds and say;
"I come, and with me comes the victorious Day!"

                            * * * * *

When I was young, the muse I wors...

"We sow the fertile seed and then we reap it;
    We thresh the golden grain; we knead the bread.
Others that eat are glad. In store they keep it,
    While we hunger outside with hearts like lead.
Hallelujah!

"We hew the stone and saw it, rear the city.
    Others inhabit there in pleasant ease.
We have no thing to ask of them save pity,
    No answer they to give but what they please.
Hallelujah!

"Is it for ever, fathers, say, and mothers,
    That we must toil and never know the light?
Is it for ever, sisters, say, and brothers,
    That they must grind us dead here in the night?
Hallelujah!

"O we who sow, reap, knead, shall we not also
    Have strength and pleasure of the food we make?
O we who hew, build, deck,...

In the early summer morning
    I stand and watch them come,
The children to the school-house;
    They chatter and laugh and hum.

The little boys with satchels
    Slung round them, and the girls
Each with hers swinging in her hand;
    I love their sunny curls.

I love to see them playing,
    Romping and shouting with glee,
The boys and girls together,
    Simple, fearless, free.

I love to see them marching
    In squads, in file, in line,
Advancing and retreating,
    Tramping, keeping time.

Sometimes a little lad
    With a bright brave face I'll see,
And a wistful yearning wonder
    Comes stealing over me.

For once I too had a darling;
    I dreamed what he should do,
And surely he'd have had, I...

Two little darlings alone,
    Clinging hand in hand;
Two little girls come out
    To see the wonderful land!

Here round the flaring stalls
    They stand wide-eyed in the throng,
While the great, the eloquent huckster
    Perorates loud and long.

They watch those thrice-blessed mortals,
    The dirty guzzling boys,
Who partake of dates, periwinkles,
    Ices and other joys.

And their little mouths go wide open
    At some of the brilliant sights
That little darlings may see in the road
    Of Edgware on Saturday nights.

The eldest's name is Susannah;
    She was four years old last May.
And Mary-Jane, the youngest,
    Is just three years old to-day.

And I know all about their cat, and
    Their father a...

(Song of the American Sons of Labour.)


THE SONG.


"O we knew so well, dear Father,
    When we answered to your call,
And the Southern Moloch stricken
    Shook and tottered to his fall -

"O we knew so well you loved us,
    And our hearts beat back to yours
With the rapturous adoration
    That through all the years endures!

"Mothers, sisters bade us hasten
    Sweethearts, wives with babe at breast;
For the Union, faith and freedom,
    For our hero of the West!

"And we wrung forth victory blood-stained
    From the desperate hands of Crime,
And our Cause blazed out Man's beacon
    Through the endless future time!

"And forgiven, forever we bade it
    Cease, that envy, hatred, strife,