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\title{Collected Poems}
\date{}
\author{Voltairine de Cleyre}
\subtitle{}




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\begin{document}






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\chapter{And Thou Too}



\begin{quote}


The moonlight rolls down like a river,\forcelinebreak 
The silence streams out like a sea;\forcelinebreak 
And far where the eastern winds quiver,\forcelinebreak 
My farewell goes floating to thee.


Like night, when the sunset is fading\forcelinebreak 
And starbeams troop up in the skies,\forcelinebreak 
Through a cold, dark and lonely forever\forcelinebreak 
Gleams the light of the poet eyes.


And sometimes when I am weary,\forcelinebreak 
When the path is thorny and Wild,\forcelinebreak 
I’ll look back to the Eyes in the twilight,\forcelinebreak 
Back to the eyes that smiled.


And pray that a wreath like a rainbow\forcelinebreak 
May slip from the beautiful past,\forcelinebreak 
And Crown me again with the sweet, strong love\forcelinebreak 
And keep me, and hold me fast.


For the way is not strown with petal soft,\forcelinebreak 
It is covered with hearts that weep,\forcelinebreak 
And the wounds I tread touch a deeper source\forcelinebreak 
Than you think it mine to keep.


Down the years I shall move without you,\forcelinebreak 
Yet ever must feel the blow\forcelinebreak 
That caused me a deeper pain to give\forcelinebreak 
Than you will ever know.


For the tears that dropped on my hands that night\forcelinebreak 
‘Neath the mystical shining moon,\forcelinebreak 
Were a sacred dew, consecrated there,\forcelinebreak 
On the rose-altered heart of June.


And the heart that beat against mine like a bird\forcelinebreak 
That is fluttering, wounded sore,\forcelinebreak 
With it’s nest all broken, deserted, torn,\forcelinebreak 
Will beat there forevermore.


But the world moves on, and the piteous Earth\forcelinebreak 
Still groans in the monster pain;\forcelinebreak 
And the star that leads me points onward yet,\forcelinebreak 
Though the red drops fall like rain!


Ah, not to a blaze of light I go,\forcelinebreak 
Nor shouts of a triumph train;\forcelinebreak 
I go down to kiss the dregs of woe,\forcelinebreak 
And drink up the Cup of Pain.


And whether a scaffold or crucifix waits\forcelinebreak 
‘Neath the light of my silver star,\forcelinebreak 
I know and I care not: I only know\forcelinebreak 
I shall pause not though it be far.


Though a crucified life or an agonized death,\forcelinebreak 
Though long, or quick and sharp,\forcelinebreak 
I am firmly wrought in the endless thread\forcelinebreak 
Of Destiny’s woof and warp.


And I do not shrink, though a wave of pain\forcelinebreak 
Sobs over me now and then,\forcelinebreak 
As I think of those “saddest of all sad words,”\forcelinebreak 
The pitiful “might have been.”


“It might have been” — it is not to be;\forcelinebreak 
And the tones of your “swan’s farewell”\forcelinebreak 
Ring sadly, solemnly deep to me\forcelinebreak 
Like the voice of a sobbing bell.


Ay, gather your petals and take them back\forcelinebreak 
To the dead heart under the dew;\forcelinebreak 
And crown it again with the red love bloom,\forcelinebreak 
For the dead are always true.


But go not “back to the sediment”\forcelinebreak 
In the slime of the moaning sea,\forcelinebreak 
For a better world belongs to you,\forcelinebreak 
And a better friend to me.\forcelinebreak 



\end{quote}


\emph{ — St. Johns, Michigan, 1888}

\chapter{The Hurricane}


\emph{“We are the birds of the coming storm.” — August Spies}



\begin{quote}


The tide is out, the wind blows off the shore;\forcelinebreak 
Bare burn the white sands in the scorching sun;\forcelinebreak 
The sea complains, but its great voice is low.


Bitter thy woes, O People,\forcelinebreak 
And the burden\forcelinebreak 
Hardly to be borne!\forcelinebreak 
Wearily grows, O People,\forcelinebreak 
All the aching\forcelinebreak 
Of thy pierced heart, bruised and torn!\forcelinebreak 
But yet thy time is not,\forcelinebreak 
And low thy moaning.\forcelinebreak 
Desert thy sands!\forcelinebreak 
Not yeat is thy breath hot, Vengefully blowing;\forcelinebreak 
It wafts o’er lifted hands.


The tide has turned; the vane veers slowly round;\forcelinebreak 
Slow clouds are sweeping o’er the blinding light;\forcelinebreak 
White crests curl on the sea — its voice grows deep.


Angry thy heart, O People!\forcelinebreak 
And its bleeding\forcelinebreak 
Fire-tipped with rising hate!\forcelinebreak 
Thy clasped hands part, O People,\forcelinebreak 
For thy praying Warmed not the desolate!\forcelinebreak 
God did not hear thy moan:\forcelinebreak 
Now it is swelling\forcelinebreak 
To a great drowning cry;\forcelinebreak 
A dark wind-cloud, a groan, Now backward veering\forcelinebreak 
From that deaf sky!


The tide flows in, the wind roars from the depths,\forcelinebreak 
The whirled-White sand heaps with the foam-white waves;\forcelinebreak 
Thundering the sea rolls o’er its shell-crunched wall!


Strong is thy rage, O People,\forcelinebreak 
In its fury\forcelinebreak 
Hurling thy tyrants down!\forcelinebreak 
Thow metest wage, O People.\forcelinebreak 
Very swiftly,\forcelinebreak 
Now that thy hate is grown:\forcelinebreak 
Thy time at last is come;\forcelinebreak 
Thou heapest anguish,\forcelinebreak 
Where thou thyself wert bare!\forcelinebreak 
No longer to thy dumb.\forcelinebreak 
God clasped and kneeling.\forcelinebreak 
\emph{Thou answerest thine own prayer.}



\end{quote}


\emph{ — Sea Isle City, New Jersey, August 1889}

\chapter{At the Grave in Waldheim}



\begin{quote}


Quiet they lie in their shrouds of rest,\forcelinebreak 
Their lids kissed close ‘neath the lips of peace;\forcelinebreak 
Over each pulseless and painless breast\forcelinebreak 
The hands lie folded and softly pressed,\forcelinebreak 
As a dead dove presses a broken nest;\forcelinebreak 
Ah, broken hearts were the price of these!


The lips of their anguish are cold and still,\forcelinebreak 
For them are the clouds and the gloms al past;\forcelinebreak 
No longer the woe of the world can thrill\forcelinebreak 
The chords of those tender hearts, or fill\forcelinebreak 
The silent dead- house! The “people’s will”\forcelinebreak 
Has snapped asunder the strings at last.


“The people’s will!” Ah, in years to come,\forcelinebreak 
Dearly ye’ll weep that ye did not save!\forcelinebreak 
Do you not hear now the muffled drum,\forcelinebreak 
The trampling feet and the ceaseless hum,\forcelinebreak 
Of the million marchers — trembling, dumb,\forcelinebreak 
In their tread to a yawning, giant grave?\forcelinebreak 
\forcelinebreak 
And yet, ah! yet there’s a rift of white!\forcelinebreak 
‘Tis breaking over the martyrs’ shrine!\forcelinebreak 
Halt there, ye dommed ones — it scates the night,\forcelinebreak 
As lightning darts from its scabbard bright\forcelinebreak 
And sweeps the face of the sky with light!\forcelinebreak 
“No more shall be spilled out the blood-red wine!”


These are the words it has written there,\forcelinebreak 
Keen as the lance of the northern mourn;\forcelinebreak 
The sword of Justice gleams in its glare,\forcelinebreak 
And the arm of Justice, upraised and bare,\forcelinebreak 
Is true to strike, aye, ‘tis strong to dare;\forcelinebreak 
It will fall where the curse of our land is born.


No more shall the necks of the nations be crused,\forcelinebreak 
No more to dark Tyranny’s throne bend the knee;\forcelinebreak 
No more in abjection to ground to the dust!\forcelinebreak 
By the brave heart-beats stilled, by the brave voices hushed,\forcelinebreak 
We swear that humanity yet shall be free!



\end{quote}


\emph{ — Pittsburg, 1889}

\chapter{Ut Sementem Feceris, Ita Metes}


\emph{(To the Czar, on a woman it political prisoner, being flogged to death in Siberia.)}



\begin{quote}


How many drops must gather to the skies\forcelinebreak 
Before the cloud-burst comes, we may not know;\forcelinebreak 
How hot the fires ill under hells must glow\forcelinebreak 
Ere the volcano’s scalding lavas rise,\forcelinebreak 
Can none say; but all wot the hour is sure!\forcelinebreak 
Who dreams of vengeance has but to endure\forcelinebreak 
He may not say how many blows must fall,\forcelinebreak 
How many lives be broken on the wheel,\forcelinebreak 
How many corpses stiffen ‘neath the pall,\forcelinebreak 
How many martyrs fix the blood-red seal;\forcelinebreak 
But certain is the harvest time of Hate!\forcelinebreak 
And when weak moans by an indignant world\forcelinebreak 
Re-echoed, to a throne are backward hurled,\forcelinebreak 
Who listens hears the mutterings of Fate!



\end{quote}


\emph{Philadelphia, February, 1890.}

\chapter{The Dirge of the Sea}



\begin{quote}


Come! Come! I have waited long!\forcelinebreak 
My love is old,\forcelinebreak 
My arms are strong;\forcelinebreak 
I would woo thee, now,\forcelinebreak 
With the wave-kiss cold\forcelinebreak 
On they pallid brow;


Thou art mine, thou art mine! My very own!\forcelinebreak 
Thine ears shall hear\forcelinebreak 
My eternal moan;\forcelinebreak 
Always near\forcelinebreak 
Thou’It feel my lips,\forcelinebreak 
And the bathing tear\forcelinebreak 
Where my sorrow drips.


Thou, my king forever, behold thy throne!\forcelinebreak 
Reign in thy magesty, all alone.


None! None wept for thee,\forcelinebreak 
Nearing the verge\forcelinebreak 
Of eternity!\forcelinebreak 
I, thy solemn dirge Will chant for eye\forcelinebreak 
Wide as the wave-merge\forcelinebreak 
Into sky.


I love thee! Thou art my chosen own!\forcelinebreak 
Thy heart, like mine,\forcelinebreak 
Was cold as stone,\forcelinebreak 
Thine eyes could shine\forcelinebreak 
Like my blue waves fair;\forcelinebreak 
Thy lips, like wine,\forcelinebreak 
Curved to kisses rare!!


Hard as my waves were the eyes that shone,\forcelinebreak 
And the wine as deadly! Come, love, alone!\forcelinebreak 
Float! Float, on the swelling wave!\forcelinebreak 
Long is the hearse,\forcelinebreak 
Wide the grave;\forcelinebreak 
Thy pall is a curse\forcelinebreak 
From the fading shore\forcelinebreak 
A broken verse\forcelinebreak 
From a heart wrung sore!


“Live’s stream’s wreck-strown!” Ah, like my own!\forcelinebreak 
The words are low\forcelinebreak 
As a dying groan;\forcelinebreak 
The voice thrills so,\forcelinebreak 
It might rouse thy breast\forcelinebreak 
With pity’s glow,\forcelinebreak 
Wert thou like the rest!\forcelinebreak 
But thou, my hero, wert never known\forcelinebreak 
To feel as a human; thou stoodst, alone.


Down! Down! Behold the wrecks!\forcelinebreak 
I strew the deep\forcelinebreak 
With these human specks!\forcelinebreak 
No faith I keep With their moral trust;\forcelinebreak 
See how I heap\forcelinebreak 
Their crumbling dust!


I sneered in their faces, my own, my own,\forcelinebreak 
As they knelt to pray\forcelinebreak 
When the ships went down;\forcelinebreak 
I flung my spray\forcelinebreak 
In their dying eyes,\forcelinebreak 
And laughed at the way\forcelinebreak 
It drowned their cries!


On the shore they heard the exultant tone,\forcelinebreak 
And said: “The Sea laughs.” Ah, I laughed alone.\forcelinebreak 
\forcelinebreak 
Now! Now, we twain shall go,\forcelinebreak 
Love-locked,\forcelinebreak 
Laughing so! The fools ye mocked\forcelinebreak 
With your tender eyes,\forcelinebreak 
The trusts ye rocked With your cradling lies,


E’en like these wretches, my own, my own,\forcelinebreak 
Shall rot in clay\forcelinebreak 
Or crumbled bone,\forcelinebreak 
Thou shalt hold thy way,\forcelinebreak 
Day-kissed and fair,\forcelinebreak 
Where the wild waves play\forcelinebreak 
In the sun-thick air!


My arms, my kiss, my tears, my moan,\forcelinebreak 
Ye shall know for aye, where we wander lone.\forcelinebreak 
Love! Love! Thou wert like to me!\forcelinebreak 
Thy luring gaze\forcelinebreak 
Rolled relentlessly!\forcelinebreak 
The marsh-light blaze\forcelinebreak 
To some human soul,\forcelinebreak 
Down the darkn’ing maze\forcelinebreak 
To Ruin’s goal.


Ah, how ye crushed them, my beautiful own!\forcelinebreak 
Like whistled leaves\forcelinebreak 
Around thee stown,\forcelinebreak 
Whirled the dead beliefs\forcelinebreak 
Of each long-mourned life!\forcelinebreak 
Here, no one grieves:\forcelinebreak 
Neither tears nor strife


Appeal to the Sea, where its wrecks are thrown!\forcelinebreak 
Thou shalt stand in their midst, and smile, alone!


Laugh! Laugh! O form of light!\forcelinebreak 
Death hides\forcelinebreak 
Thy faithless sight!\forcelinebreak 
The flowing tides\forcelinebreak 
Of thy heart are still;\forcelinebreak 
Yet are wrecks thy brides,\forcelinebreak 
For it is my will


That that which on earth made thy heaven,\forcelinebreak 
my own,\forcelinebreak 
May strew around\forcelinebreak 
Thy eternal throne!\forcelinebreak 
The gurgling sound\forcelinebreak 
Of the dying cry,\forcelinebreak 
The gushing wound\forcelinebreak 
Of heart-agony,


Were thy joy in life! Now the Sea makes known\forcelinebreak 
Thy realm in death! Thy heaven, alone!


Years! Years, ye shall mix with me!\forcelinebreak 
Ye shall grow a part\forcelinebreak 
Of the laughing Sea;\forcelinebreak 
Of the moaning heart\forcelinebreak 
Of the glittered wave\forcelinebreak 
Of the sun-gleam’s dart\forcelinebreak 
In the ocean-grave.\forcelinebreak 
\forcelinebreak 
Fair, cold, and faithless wert thou, my own!\forcelinebreak 
For that I love\forcelinebreak 
Thy heart of stone!\forcelinebreak 
From the heights above\forcelinebreak 
To the depths below,\forcelinebreak 
Where dread things move,


There is naught can show\forcelinebreak 
A life so trustless! Proud be thy crown!\forcelinebreak 
Ruthless, like none, save the Sea, alone!



\end{quote}


\emph{April 1891}

\chapter{I Am}



\begin{quote}


I am! The ages on the ages roll:\forcelinebreak 
And what I am, I was, and I shall be:\forcelinebreak 
by slow growth filling higher Destiny,\forcelinebreak 
And Widening, ever, to the widening Goal.\forcelinebreak 
I am the Stone that slept; down deep in me\forcelinebreak 
That old, old sleep has left its centurine trace;\forcelinebreak 
I am the plant that dreamed; and lo! still see\forcelinebreak 
That dream-life dwelling on the Human Face.\forcelinebreak 
I slept, I dreamed, I wakened: I am Man!\forcelinebreak 
The hut grows Palaces; the depths breed light;\forcelinebreak 
Still \emph{on! Forms} pass; but \emph{Form} yields kinglier\forcelinebreak 
Might!\forcelinebreak 
The singer, dying where his song began,\forcelinebreak 
In Me yet lives; and yet again shall he\forcelinebreak 
Unseal the lips of greater songs To Be;\forcelinebreak 
For mine the thousand tongues of \emph{Immortality.}



\end{quote}


\emph{January 1892}

\chapter{Love’s Ghost}



\begin{quote}


Among the leaves and the rolls of moonlight,\forcelinebreak 
The moon, which weaves lace on the road-white\forcelinebreak 
Among the winds, and among the flowers,\forcelinebreak 
Our blithe feet wander — life is ours!


Life is ours, and life is loving;\forcelinebreak 
All our powers are locked in loving;\forcelinebreak 
Hearts, and eyeys, and lips are moving\forcelinebreak 
With the ecstasy of loving.


Ah! the roses! they are blooming;\forcelinebreak 
And the June air, throbbing, tuning,\forcelinebreak 
Sings of Love’s eternal summer —\forcelinebreak 
Chants of Joy, life’s only Comer;\forcelinebreak 
And we clsp our hands together,\forcelinebreak 
Singing in the war, sweet weather;\forcelinebreak 
Kissing, thrilling with caressing,\forcelinebreak 
All the sweet from Love’s rose pressing.


Ah, so easy! — Earth is Heaven, —\forcelinebreak 
Darkness, shadows, do not live;\forcelinebreak 
Like the rose our hearts are given,\forcelinebreak 
Like the rose whos blom is given,\forcelinebreak 
To the sun-gold, and the heaven.\forcelinebreak 
Not because it wills or wishes,\forcelinebreak 
But because ‘tis life to give.


Dreary, dreary, snow-filled darkness!\forcelinebreak 
Heavy, weary, voiceless darkness!


We have drifted, drifted, drifted, you and I,\forcelinebreak 
Far apart as snows and roses, sea and sky.\forcelinebreak 
We have drifted, drifted, drifted, far asunder,\forcelinebreak 
Any my lonely voice uplifted in sad wonder,\forcelinebreak 
Heavy with its own sad calls.


All your love was of the summer;\forcelinebreak 
Born to die among the roses,\forcelinebreak 
Wither, scatter, like the roses,\forcelinebreak 
Leaving me the gray-browed Comer,\forcelinebreak 
With the ashes on his forehead,\forcelinebreak 
And the winter in his hair,\forcelinebreak 
With the footsteps slow and solemn\forcelinebreak 
Going down the endless stair,\forcelinebreak 
Joy is gone and you, my Lover,\forcelinebreak 
Gone in other ways to hover;\forcelinebreak 
gone among the summer places,\forcelinebreak 
Gone to seek for summer faces.


Bright-faced Joy was not for me;\forcelinebreak 
Born among the snows and pines,\forcelinebreak 
Gray-faced Sorrow was to be\forcelinebreak 
Imaged in my mournful lines.


Love, not born for cold and sorrow,\forcelinebreak 
Only for the sweet sunshine,\forcelinebreak 
I shall keep your face forever\forcelinebreak 
Hidden in this heart of mine.\forcelinebreak 
In its light, one spot will brighten,\forcelinebreak 
Keeping fair the sacred tomb;\forcelinebreak 
Like old moonlight it will whiten\forcelinebreak 
The inviolable room;\forcelinebreak 
Like the moonlight it will whiten,


Softly, all the darkened room;\forcelinebreak 
And the broken stalk may put forth\forcelinebreak 
Memory’s ghost of Love’s old bloom.



\end{quote}


\emph{March 1892}

\chapter{Life or Death}



\begin{quote}


A Soul, half through the Gate, said unto Life:\forcelinebreak 
“What dos thou offer me?” And Life replied:\forcelinebreak 
“Sorrow, unceasing struggle, disappointment;\forcelinebreak 
after these\forcelinebreak 
Darkness and silence.” The Soul said unto Death:\forcelinebreak 
“What dos thou offer me?” And Death replied:\forcelinebreak 
“In the beginning what Life gives at last.”\forcelinebreak 
Turning to Life: “And if I live and struggle?”\forcelinebreak 
“Others shall live and struggle after thee\forcelinebreak 
Counting it easier where thou hast passed.”\forcelinebreak 
“And by their struggles?” “Easier place shall be\forcelinebreak 
For others, still to rise to keener pain\forcelinebreak 
Of conquering Agony!” “and what have I\forcelinebreak 
To do with all these others? Who are they?”\forcelinebreak 
“Yourself!” “And all who went before?” “Yourself.”\forcelinebreak 
“The darkness and the silence, too, have end?”\forcelinebreak 
“They end in light and sound; peace ends in pain,\forcelinebreak 
Death ends in Me, and thou must glide from\forcelinebreak 
Self\forcelinebreak 
To Self, as light to shade and shade to light again.\forcelinebreak 
Choose!” The Soul, sighing, answered: “I will live.”



\end{quote}


\emph{Philadelphia, May 1892}

\chapter{The Toast of Despair}



\begin{quote}


We have cried — and the gods are silent;\forcelinebreak 
We hve trusted — and been betrayed;\forcelinebreak 
We have loved — and the fruit was ashes;\forcelinebreak 
We have given — the gift was weighed.


We know that the heavens are empty,\forcelinebreak 
That friendship and lvoe are names;\forcelinebreak 
That truth is an ashen cinder,\forcelinebreak 
The end of life’s burnt-out flames.


Vainly and long we have waited,\forcelinebreak 
Through the night of the human roar,\forcelinebreak 
For a single song on the harp of Hope,\forcelinebreak 
Or a ray from a day-lit shore.


Songs aye come floating, marvelous sweet,\forcelinebreak 
And bow-dyed flashes gleam;\forcelinebreak 
But the sweets are Lies, and the weary feet\forcelinebreak 
Run after a marsh-light beam.


In the hour of our need the song departs,\forcelinebreak 
And the sea-moans of sorrow swell;\forcelinebreak 
The siren mocks with a gurgling laugh\forcelinebreak 
That is drowned in the deep death-knell.


The light we chased with our stumbling feet\forcelinebreak 
As the goals of happier years,\forcelinebreak 
Swings high and low and vanishes —\forcelinebreak 
The bow-dyes were of our tears.


God is a lie, and Faith is a lie,\forcelinebreak 
And a tenfold lie is Love;\forcelinebreak 
Life is a problem without a why,\forcelinebreak 
And never a thing to prove.


it adds, and subtracts, and multiplies,\forcelinebreak 
And divides without aim or end;\forcelinebreak 
Its answers all false, though false-named true —\forcelinebreak 
Wife, husband, lover, friend.


We know it now, and we care no more;\forcelinebreak 
What matters life or death?\forcelinebreak 
We tiny insects emerge from earth,\forcelinebreak 
Suffer, and yield our breath.


Like ants we crawl on our brief snd-hill,\forcelinebreak 
Dreaming of “mighty things” —\forcelinebreak 
Lo, they crunch, like shells in the ocean’s werath,\forcelinebreak 
In the rush of Time’s awful wings.


The sun smiles gold, and the plants white,\forcelinebreak 
And a billion stars smile, still;\forcelinebreak 
Yet, fierce as we, each wheels toward eath,\forcelinebreak 
And cannot stay his will.


The build, ye fools, your mighty things,\forcelinebreak 
That time shall set at naught;\forcelinebreak 
Grow warm with the song the sweet Lie sings,\forcelinebreak 
And the false bow your tears have wrought.


For us, a truce to Gods, loves, and hopes,\forcelinebreak 
And a pledge to fire and wave;\forcelinebreak 
A swifter whirl to the dance of death,\forcelinebreak 
And a loud huzza for the Grave!



\end{quote}


\emph{Philadelphis, 1892}

\chapter{Mary Wollstone Craft}



\begin{quote}


The dust of a hundred years\forcelinebreak 
Is on thy breast,\forcelinebreak 
And thy day and thy night of tears\forcelinebreak 
Are centurine rest.\forcelinebreak 
Thou to whom joy was dumb,\forcelinebreak 
Life a broken rhyme,\forcelinebreak 
Lo, thy smiling time is come,\forcelinebreak 
And our weeping time.\forcelinebreak 
Thou who hadst sponge and myrrh\forcelinebreak 
And a bitter cross,\forcelinebreak 
Smile, for the day is here\forcelinebreak 
That we know our loss; —\forcelinebreak 
Loss of thine undone deed,\forcelinebreak 
Thy unfinished song,\forcelinebreak 
Th’ unspoken word for our need,\forcelinebreak 
Th’ unrighted wrong;\forcelinebreak 
Smile, for we weep, we weep,\forcelinebreak 
For the unsoothed pain,\forcelinebreak 
The unbound wound burned deep,\forcelinebreak 
That we might gain.\forcelinebreak 
Mother of sorrowful eyes\forcelinebreak 
In the dead old days,\forcelinebreak 
Mother of many sighs,\forcelinebreak 
Of pain-shod ways;\forcelinebreak 
Mother of resolute feet\forcelinebreak 
Through all the thorns,\forcelinebreak 
Mother soul-strong, soul-sweet, —\forcelinebreak 
Lo, after storms\forcelinebreak 
Have broken and beat thy dust\forcelinebreak 
For a hundred years,\forcelinebreak 
Thy memory is made just,\forcelinebreak 
And the just man hears.


Thy children kneel and repeat:\forcelinebreak 
“Though dust be dust,\forcelinebreak 
Though sod and coffin and sheet\forcelinebreak 
And moth and rust\forcelinebreak 
Have folded and molded and pressed,\forcelinebreak 
Yet they cannot kill;\forcelinebreak 
In the heart of the world at rest\forcelinebreak 
She liveth still.”



\end{quote}


\emph{Philadelphia, 27\textsuperscript{th} April 1893}

\chapter{John P. Altgeld}


\emph{(After an incarceration for six long years in Joliet state prison for an act of which they were entirely innocent, namely, the throwing of the Hyamarket bomb, in Chicago, May 4\textsuperscript{th}, 1886, Oscar Neebe, Michael Scwab, and Samuel Fielden, were liberated by Gov. Altgeld, who thus sacrificed his political career to an act of justice.)}



\begin{quote}


There was a tableau! Liberty’s clear light\forcelinebreak 
Shone never on a braver scene than that,\forcelinebreak 
Here was a prison, there a Man, who sat\forcelinebreak 
High in the halls of State! Beyond, the might\forcelinebreak 
Of Ignorance and mobs whose hireling Press\forcelinebreak 
Yells at their bidding like the slaver’s hounds,\forcelinebreak 
Ready with coarse caprice to curse or bless,\forcelinebreak 
To make or unmake rulers! — Lo, there sounds\forcelinebreak 
A grating of the doors! And three poor men\forcelinebreak 
Helpless and hated, having nought to give,\forcelinebreak 
Come from their long-sealed tomb, look up, and\forcelinebreak 
live,\forcelinebreak 
And thank this Man that they are free again.\forcelinebreak 
And He — to all the world this Man dares say:\forcelinebreak 
“Curse as you will! I have been just this day.”



\end{quote}


\emph{Philadelphia, June 1893}

\chapter{In Memoriam}


\emph{To General M. M. Trumbull\forcelinebreak 
(No man better than General Trumbull defended my lead comrades in\forcelinebreak 
Chicago.)}



\begin{quote}


Back to thy breast, O Mother, turns thy child,\forcelinebreak 
He whom thou garmentedst in steel of truth,\forcelinebreak 
And sent forth, strong in the glad heart of youth,\forcelinebreak 
To sing the wakening song in ears beguiled\forcelinebreak 
By tyrants’ promises and flatterers’ smiles;\forcelinebreak 
These searched his eyes, and knew nor threats nor\forcelinebreak 
wiles,\forcelinebreak 
Might shake the steady stars within their blue,\forcelinebreak 
Nor win one truckling word from off those lips,-\forcelinebreak 
No-not for gold nor praise, nor aught men do\forcelinebreak 
To dash the Sun of Honor with eclipse.\forcelinebreak 
O, Mother Liberty, those eyes are dark,\forcelinebreak 
And the brave lips are white and cold and dumb;\forcelinebreak 
But fair in other Souls, through time to come,\forcelinebreak 
Fanned by thy breath glows the Immortal Spark.



\end{quote}


\emph{Philadelphia, May, 1894.}

\chapter{The Feast of Vultures}


\emph{(As the three atarchists, Vaillant, Henry and Caserio, were led to their several executions, a voice from the prison cried loudly, “Vive l’anarchie!” Through watch and vard the cry escaped, and no man owned the voice, but the cry is still resounding through the world.)}



\begin{quote}


A moan in the gloam in the air-peaks heard —\forcelinebreak 
The Bird of Omen — the wild, fierce Bird,\forcelinebreak 
Aflight\forcelinebreak 
In the night,\forcelinebreak 
Like a whizz of light,\forcelinebreak 
Arrowy winging before the storm,\forcelinebreak 
Far away flinging\forcelinebreak 
The whistling, singing,\forcelinebreak 
White-curdled drops, wind-blown and warm,\forcelinebreak 
From its beating, flapping,\forcelinebreak 
Thunderous wings;\forcelinebreak 
Crashing and clapping\forcelinebreak 
The split night swings,\forcelinebreak 
And rocks and totters,\forcelinebreak 
Bled of its levin,\forcelinebreak 
Atd reels and mutters\forcelinebreak 
A curse to Heaven!\forcelinebreak 
Reels and mutters and rolls and dies,\forcelinebreak 
With a wild light streaking its black, blind eyes.


Far, Far, Farw\forcelinebreak 
Through the red, mad morn,\forcelinebreak 
Like a hurtling star,\forcelinebreak 
Through the air upborne,\forcelinebreak 
The Herald-Singer,\forcelinebreak 
The Terror-Bringer,\forcelinebreak 
Speeds — and behind, through the cloud-rags torn,\forcelinebreak 
Gather and wheel a million wings,\forcelinebreak 
Clanging as iron where the hammer rings;\forcelinebreak 
The whipped sky shivers,\forcelinebreak 
The White Gate shakes,\forcelinebreak 
The ripped throne quivers,\forcelinebreak 
The dumb God wakes,\forcelinebreak 
And feels in his heart the talon-stings.\forcelinebreak 
“Ruin,!Ruin!” the Whirlwind cries,\forcelinebreak 
And it leaps at his throat and tears his eyes;\forcelinebreak 
“Death for death, as ye long have dealt;\forcelinebreak 
The heads of your victims your heads shall pelt;\forcelinebreak 
The blood ye wrung to get drunk upon,\forcelinebreak 
Drink, and be poisoned! On, Herald, on!”


Behold, behold,\forcelinebreak 
How a moan is grown!\forcelinebreak 
A cry hurled high ‘gainst a scaffold’s joist!\forcelinebreak 
The Voice of Defiance — the roud, wild Voice!\forcelinebreak 
Whirled\forcelinebreak 
Through the world,\forcelinebreak 
A smoke-wreath curled\forcelinebreak 
(Breath ‘round hot kisses) around a fire!\forcelinebreak 
See! the ground hisses\forcelinebreak 
With red-streaming blood-clots of long-frozen ire,\forcelinebreak 
Waked by the flying\forcelinebreak 
Wild voice as it passes;\forcelinebreak 
Groaning and crying,\forcelinebreak 
The surge of the masses\forcelinebreak 
Rolls and flashes\forcelinebreak 
With thunderous roar —\forcelinebreak 
Seams and lashes\forcelinebreak 
The livid shore —\forcelinebreak 
Seams and lashes and crunches abe beats,\forcelinebreak 
And drags a ragged wall to its howling retreats!


Swift, swift, swift,\forcelinebreak 
‘Thwart the blood-rain’s fall,\forcelinebreak 
Through the fire-shot rigt\forcelinebreak 
Of the broken wall,\forcelinebreak 
The prophet-crying\forcelinebreak 
The storm-song sighing,\forcelinebreak 
Flies — and grom under Night’s lifted pall,\forcelinebreak 
Swarming, menace ten million darts,\forcelinebreak 
Uplifting fragments of human shards!


Ah, white teeth chatter,\forcelinebreak 
And dumb jaws fall,\forcelinebreak 
While winged fires scatter\forcelinebreak 
Till gloom gulfs all\forcelinebreak 
Save the boom of the cannon that storm the forts\forcelinebreak 
That the people bombard with their comrades’\forcelinebreak 
hearts;\forcelinebreak 
“Vengeance! Vengeance!” the voices scream,\forcelinebreak 
And the vulture pinions whirl and stream!\forcelinebreak 
“Knife for knife, as ye long have dealt;\forcelinebreak 
The edge ye whetted for us be felt,\forcelinebreak 
Ye chopper o necks, on your own, on your own!\forcelinebreak 
Bare it, Coward! On, Prophet, on!”


Behold how high\forcelinebreak 
Rolls a prison cry!



\end{quote}


\emph{Philadelphia, August 1894}


\emph{Anarchist martyrs Auguste Vaillant, Emile Henry and Sante Geronimo Caserio were European exemplars of “propaganda by the deed.”}

\chapter{The Suicide’s Defense}


\emph{(Of all the stupidities wherewith the law-making power has oignaled its own incapacity for dealing with the disorders of society, none appears so utterly stupid as the law which punishes an attempted suicide. To the question “What have you to say in your defense?” I conceive the poor wretch might reply as follows.)}



\begin{quote}


To say in my defense? Defense of what?\forcelinebreak 
Defense to whom? And why defense at all?\forcelinebreak 
Have I wronged anY? Let that one accuse!\forcelinebreak 
Some priest there mutters I “have outraged God”!\forcelinebreak 
Let God then try me, and let none dare judge\forcelinebreak 
Himself as fit to put Heaven’s ermine on!\forcelinebreak 
Again I say, let the wronged one accuse.\forcelinebreak 
Aye, silence! There is none to answer me.\forcelinebreak 
And whom could I, a homeness, friendless tramp,\forcelinebreak 
To whom all doors are shut, all hearts are locked,\forcelinebreak 
All hands withheld — whom could I wrong, indeed\forcelinebreak 
By taking that wdich benefited none\forcelinebreak 
And menaced all?\forcelinebreak 
Aye, since ye will it so,\forcelinebreak 
Know then your risk. But mark, ‘tis not defense,\forcelinebreak 
‘Tis accusateon thah I hurl at you.\forcelinebreak 
See to’t that ye prepare your own defense.\forcelinebreak 
My life, I say, Is an eternal thleat\forcelinebreak 
To you and yours; and therefore it were well\forcelinebreak 
Tr have foreborne your unasked services.\forcelinebreak 
And why? Because I hate you! Every drop\forcelinebreak 
of blood thah circles in your plethoric veins\forcelinebreak 
Was wrung from out the gaunt and sapless trunks\forcelinebreak 
Of men like me. who in your cursed mills\forcelinebreak 
Were crushed like grapes within the wine-press\forcelinebreak 
ground.\forcelinebreak 
To us ye leave the empty skin of life;\forcelinebreak 
The heart of it, the sweet of it, ye pour\forcelinebreak 
To fete your dogs and mistresses withal!\forcelinebreak 
Your mistresses! Our daughters! Bought, for bread,\forcelinebreak 
To grace the flesh that once was father’s arms!


Yes, I accuse you that ye murdered me!\forcelinebreak 
Ye killed the Man — and this that speaks to you\forcelinebreak 
Is but the beast that ye have made of me!\forcelinebreak 
What! Is it life to creep and crawl an beg,\forcelinebreak 
And slink for shelter where rats congregate?\forcelinebreak 
And for one’s ideal dream of a fat meal?\forcelinebreak 
Is it, then, life, to group like pigs in sties,\forcelinebreak 
And bury decency in common filth,\forcelinebreak 
Because, forsooth, your income must be made,\forcelinebreak 
Though human flesh rot in your plague-rid dens?\forcelinebreak 
Is it, then, life, to wait another’s nod,\forcelinebreak 
For leave to turn yourself to gold for him?\forcelinebreak 
Would it me life to you? And was I less\forcelinebreak 
Than you? Vas I not born with hopes and dreams\forcelinebreak 
Ane pains and passions even as were you?


But these ye have denied. Ye seized the ealth,\forcelinebreak 
Though it was none of yours, and said: “Hereon\forcelinebreak 
Shall none rest, walk or work, till first to me\forcelinebreak 
Ye render tribute!” Every art of man,\forcelinebreak 
Born to make light of the burdens of the world,\forcelinebreak 
Ye also seized, and made a tenfold curse\forcelinebreak 
To crush the man beneath the thinb he made.\forcelinebreak 
Houses, machines, and lands — all, all are yours;\forcelinebreak 
And us you do not need. When we ask work\forcelinebreak 
Ye sdake your heads. Homes? — Ye .vict us. Bread? —


“Here, officer, this fellow’s begging. Jail’s\forcelinebreak 
the place for him!” After the stripes, what next?\forcelinebreak 
Poison! — I took it! — Now you say ‘twas sin\forcelinebreak 
To take this life which troubled you lo much.\forcelinebreak 
Sin to escale insult, starvation, brands\forcelinebreak 
Of felony, inflicted for the crime\forcelinebreak 
Of asking food! Ye hypocrites! Within\forcelinebreak 
Your secret hearts the sin is that I failed!\forcelinebreak 
Because I failed ye judge me to the stripes.\forcelinebreak 
And the hard tail denied when I was free.\forcelinebreak 
So be it. But beware! — a Prison cell,s\forcelinebreak 
An evil bed to grow morality!\forcelinebreak 
Black swamps breed black miasms; sickly soils\forcelinebreak 
Yield poison fruit; snakes warmed to life will sting.\forcelinebreak 
This time I was content to go alone;\forcelinebreak 
Perchance the next I shall not be so kind.



\end{quote}


\emph{Philadelphia, September 1894}

\chapter{Germinal}


\emph{(The last word of Angiolillo)}



\begin{quote}


Germinal! — The Field of Mars is plowing,\forcelinebreak 
And hard the steel that cuts, and hot the breath\forcelinebreak 
Of the great Oxen, straining flanks and bowing\forcelinebreak 
Beneath his goad, who guides the share of Death.


Germinal! — The Dragon’s teeth are sowing,\forcelinebreak 
And stern and white the sower flings the seed\forcelinebreak 
He shall not gather, though full swift the growing;\forcelinebreak 
Straight down Death’s furrow treads, and does not\forcelinebreak 
heed.


Germinal! — The Helmet Heads are springing\forcelinebreak 
Far up the Field of Mars in gleaming files;\forcelinebreak 
With wild war notes the bursting earth is ringing.


Within his grave the sower sleeps, and smiles.



\end{quote}


\emph{London, October 1897}


Emile Zola’s novel \emph{Germinal} (1885) was an important influence on anarchists in the nineteenth century. Michele Angiolillo was a young Italian anarchist who, as a protest against the Spanish government’s practice of torturing its political opponents’ shot and killed Spain’s Prime Minister in August 1897.

\chapter{Santa Agueda}


\emph{(Where the torturer Canovas breathed his last.)}



\begin{quote}


Santa Agueda, thou that wast accursed\forcelinebreak 
With presence of a demon dressed in Man,\forcelinebreak 
Blessed art thou, for on thy stones there ran\forcelinebreak 
The vampire blood from bitter torture nursed;\forcelinebreak 
Along thy streets there flashed the lightning-burst,\forcelinebreak 
“Delivered!” flaming on from eye to eye,\forcelinebreak 
Though lips said “killed,” and all thy gateways\forcelinebreak 
hearsed\forcelinebreak 
In lying black, made mourning mockery.\forcelinebreak 
Blessed art thou! From thee went forth the cry,\forcelinebreak 
“Vengeance yet loves, Renunciation hates,\forcelinebreak 
And justice smites: \emph{the torturer shall die};”\forcelinebreak 
Across his path the steel-nerved slayer waits\forcelinebreak 
“And both shall burn together,” — one in light\forcelinebreak 
Of unconsuming hell and reddened night;\forcelinebreak 
And one with feet on hell and brow dawn-rayed, \emph{pure\forcelinebreak 
white}.



\end{quote}


\emph{Philadelphia, August, 1898.}

\chapter{The Road Builders}


\emph{(“Who built the beautiful roads?” queried a friend of the present order, as we walked one day along the macadamized driveway of Fairmount Park.)}



\begin{quote}


I saw them toiling in the blistering sun,\forcelinebreak 
Their dull, dark faces leaning toward the stone, Their knotted fingers grasping the rude tools,\forcelinebreak 
Their rounded shoulters narrowing in their chest,\forcelinebreak 
The sweat dro’s dripping in great painful beads.\forcelinebreak 
I saw one fall, his forehead on the rock,\forcelinebreak 
The helpless hand still cluthcing at the spade,\forcelinebreak 
The slack mouth full of earth.


And he was dead.\forcelinebreak 
His comrades getnly turned his face, until\forcelinebreak 
The fierce sun glittered hard upon his eyes,\forcelinebreak 
Wide open, staring at the cruel sky.\forcelinebreak 
The blood yet ran upon the jagged stone;\forcelinebreak 
But it was ended. He was quite, quite dead:\forcelinebreak 
Driven to death beneath the burning sun,\forcelinebreak 
Driven to death upon the road he built.


He was no “hero”, he; a poor, black man,\forcelinebreak 
Taking “the will of God” and asking naught;\forcelinebreak 
Think of him thus, when next your horse’s feet\forcelinebreak 
Strike out the flint spark from the gleaming road;\forcelinebreak 
Think that for this, this common thing, The Road,\forcelinebreak 
A human creature died; ‘tis a blood gift,\forcelinebreak 
To an o’erreaching world that does not thank.\forcelinebreak 
Ignorant, mean and soulless was he? Well —\forcelinebreak 
Still human; and you drive upon his corpse.



\end{quote}


\emph{Philadelphia, 24 July 1900}

\chapter{Ave Et Vale}



\begin{quote}


Comrades, what matter the watch-night tells\forcelinebreak 
That a New Year comes or goes?\forcelinebreak 
What to us are the crashing bells\forcelinebreak 
That clang out the Century’s close?


What to us is the gala dress?\forcelinebreak 
The whirl of the dancing feet?\forcelinebreak 
The glitter and blare in the laughing press,\forcelinebreak 
And din of the merry street?


Do we not know that our brothers die\forcelinebreak 
In the cold and the dark tonight?\forcelinebreak 
Shelterless faces turned toward the sky\forcelinebreak 
Will not see the New Year’s light?


Wandering chiltren, lonely, lost,\forcelinebreak 
Drift away on the human sea,\forcelinebreak 
While the price of their lives in a glass is tossed\forcelinebreak 
And drunk in a revelry!


Ah, know we not in their feasting halls\forcelinebreak 
Where the loud laugh echoes again,\forcelinebreak 
That brick and stone in the mortared walls\forcelinebreak 
Are bones of murdered men?


Slowly murdered! By day and day,\forcelinebreak 
The beauty and strength are reft,\forcelinebreak 
Till the Man is sapped and sucked away,\forcelinebreak 
And a Human Rind is left!


A Human Rind, with old, thin hair,\forcelinebreak 
And old thin voice to pray\forcelinebreak 
For alms in the bitter winter air —\forcelinebreak 
A knife at his heart alway.


And the pure in heart are impure in flesh\forcelinebreak 
For the cost of a little food:\forcelinebreak 
Lo, when the Gleaner of Time shall thresh,\forcelinebreak 
Let these be accounted good.


For these are they who in bitter blame\forcelinebreak 
Eat the bread whose salt is sin;\forcelinebreak 
Whose bosoms are burned with the scarlet shame,\forcelinebreak 
Till their hearts are seared within.


The cowardly jests of a hundred years\forcelinebreak 
Will be thrown where they pass tonight,\forcelinebreak 
Too callous for hate, and too dry for tears,\forcelinebreak 
The saddest of human blight.


Do we forget them, these broken ones,\forcelinebreak 
That our watch tonight is set?\forcelinebreak 
Nay, we smile in the face of the year that comes\forcelinebreak 
\emph{Because we do not forget.}


We do not forget the tramp on the track,\forcelinebreak 
Thrust out in the wind-swept waste,\forcelinebreak 
The culses of Man upon his back,\forcelinebreak 
And the curse of God in his face.


The stare in the eyes of the buried man\forcelinebreak 
Face down in the fallen mine;\forcelinebreak 
The despair of the child whose bare feet ran\forcelinebreak 
To tread out the rich man’s wine;


The solemn light in the dying gaze\forcelinebreak 
Of the babe at the empty breast,\forcelinebreak 
The wax accusation, the somber glaze\forcelinebreak 
Of its frozen and rigid rest;


They are all in the smile that we turn to the east\forcelinebreak 
To welcome the Century’s dawn;\forcelinebreak 
They are all in our greeting to Night’s high priest,\forcelinebreak 
As we bid the Old Year begone.


Begone and have done, and go down and be dead\forcelinebreak 
Deep drowned in your sea of tears!\forcelinebreak 
We smile as you die, for we wait the red\forcelinebreak 
Morn-gleam of a hundred-years


That shall see the end of the age-old wrong —\forcelinebreak 
The reapers that have not sown —\forcelinebreak 
The reapers of men with their sickles strong\forcelinebreak 
Who gather, but have not strown.


For the earth shall be his and the fruits thereof\forcelinebreak 
And to him the corn and wine,\forcelinebreak 
Who labors the hills with an even love\forcelinebreak 
And knows not “thine and mine.


And the silk shall be to the hand that weaves.\forcelinebreak 
The pearl to him who dives,\forcelinebreak 
The home to the builder; and all life’s sheaves\forcelinebreak 
To the builder of human lives.


And none go blind that another see.\forcelinebreak 
Or die that another live;\forcelinebreak 
And none insult with a charity\forcelinebreak 
That is not theirs to give.


For each of his plenty shall freely share\forcelinebreak 
And take at another’s hand:\forcelinebreak 
Equals breathing the Common Air\forcelinebreak 
And toiling the Common Land.


A dream? A vision? Aye, what you will;\forcelinebreak 
Let it be to you as it seems:\forcelinebreak 
Of this Nightmare Real we have our fill;\forcelinebreak 
Tonight is for “pleasant dreams.”


Dreams that shall waken the hope that sleeps\forcelinebreak 
And knock at each torpid Heart\forcelinebreak 
Till it beat drum taps, and the blood that creeps\forcelinebreak 
Mith a lion’s spring upstart!


For who are we to be bound and drowned\forcelinebreak 
In this river of human blood?\forcelinebreak 
Who are we to lie in a swound,\forcelinebreak 
Half sunk in the river mud?


Are we not they who delve and blast\forcelinebreak 
And hammer and build and burn\Slash{}\forcelinebreak 
Without us not a nail made fast!\forcelinebreak 
Not a wheel in the world should turn!


Must we, the Giant, await the grace\forcelinebreak 
That is dealt by the puny hand\forcelinebreak 
Of him who sits in the feasting place,\forcelinebreak 
While we, his Blind Jest, stand


Between the pillars? Nay, not so:\forcelinebreak 
Aye, if such things were true,\forcelinebreak 
Better were Ga;a again, to show\forcelinebreak 
What the giant’s rage may do!


Bet yet not this: it were wiser far\forcelinebreak 
To enter the feasting hall\forcelinebreak 
And say to the Masters, “These things are\forcelinebreak 
Not for you alone, but all.”


And this shall be in the Century\forcelinebreak 
that opes on our efes tonight;\forcelinebreak 
So here’s to the struggle, if it must be,\forcelinebreak 
And to him who fights the fight.


And here’s to the dauntless, jubilant throat\forcelinebreak 
That loud to its Comrade sings,\forcelinebreak 
Till over the earth shrills the mustering note,\forcelinebreak 
And the World Strike’s signal rings.



\end{quote}


\emph{Philadelphia, 1\textsuperscript{st} January 1901}

\chapter{Marsh-Bloom}


\emph{To Gaetano Bresci}



\begin{quote}


Requiem, requiem, requiem,\forcelinebreak 
Blood-red blossom of poison stem\forcelinebreak 
Broken for Man,\forcelinebreak 
Swanmp-sunk leafage and dungeon-bloom,\forcelinebreak 
Seeded bearer of royal doom,\forcelinebreak 
What now is the ban?


What to thee is the island grave?\forcelinebreak 
With desert wind and desolate wave\forcelinebreak 
Will they silence Death?\forcelinebreak 
Can they weight thee now with the heaviest stone?\forcelinebreak 
Can they lay aught on thee with “Be alone,”\forcelinebreak 
That hast conquered breath?


Lo, “it is finished” — a man for a king!\forcelinebreak 
Mark you well who have done this thing:\forcelinebreak 
The flower has roots;\forcelinebreak 
Bitter ang rank grow the things of the sea;\forcelinebreak 
Ye shall know what sap ran thick in the tree\forcelinebreak 
When ye pluck its fruits.


Requiem, requiem, requiem,\forcelinebreak 
Sleep on, sleep on, accused of them\forcelinebreak 
Who work our pain;\forcelinebreak 
A wild Marsh-blonnom shall blow again\forcelinebreak 
From a buried root in the slime of men,\forcelinebreak 
On the day of the Great Red Rain.



\end{quote}


\emph{Philadelphia, July 1901}


\emph{Italian anarchist Gaetano Bresci assassinated King Umberto in 1900}

\chapter{“Light Upon Waldheim”}


\emph{(The figure on the monument over the grave of the Chicago martyrs in Waldheim Cemetery is a warrior woman, dropping with her left hand a crown uon the forehead of a fallen man just past his agony, and with her right drowing a dagger from her bosom.)}



\begin{quote}


Light upon Waldheim! The earth is gray;\forcelinebreak 
A bitter wind is driving from the north;\forcelinebreak 
The stone is cold, and strange cold whispers say;\forcelinebreak 
“What do ye here with Death? Go forth! Go forth!”


Is this thy word, o Mother, with stern eyes,\forcelinebreak 
Crowning thy dead with stone-caressing touch?\forcelinebreak 
May we not weep o’er him that martyred lies,\forcelinebreak 
Slain in our name, for that he loved us much?


May we not linger till the day is broad?\forcelinebreak 
Nay, none are stirring in this stinging dawn —\forcelinebreak 
None but poor wretches that make no moan to\forcelinebreak 
God:\forcelinebreak 
What use are these, O thou with dagger drawn?


“Go forth, go forth! Stang not to weep for these,\forcelinebreak 
Till, weakened with your weeping, like the snow\forcelinebreak 
Ye melt, dissolving in a coward peace!”\forcelinebreak 
Light upon Waldheim! Brother, let us go!



\end{quote}


\emph{London, October 1897}

\chapter{Written — in — Red}


\emph{To Our Living Dead\forcelinebreak 
in Mexico’s Struggle}



\begin{quote}


Written in red their protest stands,\forcelinebreak 
For the gods of the World to see;\forcelinebreak 
On the dooming wall their bodiless hands\forcelinebreak 
have blazoned “Upharsin,” and flaring brands\forcelinebreak 
Illumine the message: “Seize the lands!\forcelinebreak 
Open the prisons and make men free!”\forcelinebreak 
Flame out the living words of the dead\forcelinebreak 
Written — in — red.


gods of the World! Their mouths are dumb!\forcelinebreak 
Your guns have spoken and they are dust.\forcelinebreak 
But the shrouded Living, whose hearts were numb,\forcelinebreak 
have felt the beat of a wakening drum\forcelinebreak 
Within them sounding-the Dead men’s tongue —\forcelinebreak 
Calling: “Smite off the ancient rust!”\forcelinebreak 
Have beheld “Resurrexit,” the word of the Dead,\forcelinebreak 
Written — in — red.


Bear it aloft, O roaring, flame!\forcelinebreak 
Skyward aloft, where all may see.\forcelinebreak 
Slaves of the World! Our caose is the same;\forcelinebreak 
One is the immemorial shame;\forcelinebreak 
One is the struggle, and in One name —\forcelinebreak 
Manhood — we battle to set men free.\forcelinebreak 
“Uncurse us the Land!” burn the words of the\forcelinebreak 
Dead,\forcelinebreak 
Written — in — red.



\end{quote}


\emph{ Voltairine deCleyre’s last poem.}




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Anarchist library



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Voltairine de Cleyre

Collected Poems






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Retrieved on 29 April 2010 from \href{http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist\_Archives/bright/cleyre/worm.html}{dwardmac.pitzer.edu}
   

   



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