\documentclass[DIV=12,%
BCOR=0mm,%
headinclude=false,%
footinclude=false,open=any,%
fontsize=10pt,%
oneside,%
paper=a5]%
{scrbook}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont[Script=Latin]{Alegreya}
\setsansfont[Script=Latin,Scale=MatchLowercase]{Alegreya Sans}
\setmonofont[Script=Latin,Scale=MatchLowercase]{Space Mono}
% global style
\pagestyle{plain}
\usepackage{microtype} % you need an *updated* texlive 2012, but harmless
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{alltt}
\usepackage{verbatim}
% http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/3033/forcing-linebreaks-in-url
\PassOptionsToPackage{hyphens}{url}\usepackage[hyperfootnotes=false,hidelinks,breaklinks=true]{hyperref}
\usepackage{bookmark}
\usepackage[shortlabels]{enumitem}
\usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage[normalem]{ulem}
\def\hsout{\bgroup \ULdepth=-.55ex \ULset}
% https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/22410/strikethrough-in-section-title
% Unclear if \protect \hsout is needed. Doesn't looks so
\DeclareRobustCommand{\sout}[1]{\texorpdfstring{\hsout{#1}}{#1}}
\usepackage{wrapfig}
\usepackage{indentfirst}
% remove the numbering
\setcounter{secnumdepth}{-2}
% remove labels from the captions
\renewcommand*{\captionformat}{}
\renewcommand*{\figureformat}{}
\renewcommand*{\tableformat}{}
\KOMAoption{captions}{belowfigure,nooneline}
\addtokomafont{caption}{\centering}
\usepackage{polyglossia}
\setmainlanguage{english}
% footnote handling
\usepackage[fragile]{bigfoot}
\usepackage{perpage}
\DeclareNewFootnote{default}
\DeclareNewFootnote{B}
\MakeSorted{footnoteB}
\renewcommand*\thefootnoteB{(\arabic{footnoteB})}
\deffootnote[3em]{0em}{4em}{\textsuperscript{\thefootnotemark}~}
% avoid breakage on multiple
and avoid the next [] to be eaten
\newcommand*{\forcelinebreak}{\strut\\*{}}
\newcommand*{\hairline}{%
\bigskip%
\noindent \hrulefill%
\bigskip%
}
% reverse indentation for biblio and play
\newenvironment*{amusebiblio}{
\leftskip=\parindent
\parindent=-\parindent
\smallskip
\indent
}{\smallskip}
\newenvironment*{amuseplay}{
\leftskip=\parindent
\parindent=-\parindent
\smallskip
\indent
}{\smallskip}
\newcommand*{\Slash}{\slash\hspace{0pt}}
\addtokomafont{disposition}{\rmfamily}
\addtokomafont{descriptionlabel}{\rmfamily}
% forbid widows/orphans
\frenchspacing
\sloppy
\clubpenalty=10000
\widowpenalty=10000
% http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/304802/how-not-to-hyphenate-the-last-word-of-a-paragraph
\finalhyphendemerits=10000
% given that we said footinclude=false, this should be safe
\setlength{\footskip}{2\baselineskip}
\title{Collected Poems}
\date{}
\author{Voltairine de Cleyre}
\subtitle{}
% https://groups.google.com/d/topic/comp.text.tex/6fYmcVMbSbQ/discussion
\hypersetup{%
pdfencoding=auto,
pdftitle={Collected Poems},%
pdfauthor={Voltairine de Cleyre},%
pdfsubject={},%
pdfkeywords={poetry}%
}
\begin{document}
\begin{titlepage}
\strut\vskip 2em
\begin{center}
{\usekomafont{title}{\huge Collected Poems\par}}%
\vskip 1em
\vskip 2em
{\usekomafont{author}{Voltairine de Cleyre\par}}%
\vskip 1.5em
\vfill
\strut\par
\end{center}
\end{titlepage}
\cleardoublepage
\tableofcontents
% start a new right-handed page
\cleardoublepage
\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.}
% begin final page
\clearpage
% new page for the colophon
\thispagestyle{empty}
\begin{center}
Library.Anarhija.Net
\bigskip
\includegraphics[width=0.25\textwidth]{logo-yu.pdf}
\bigskip
\end{center}
\strut
\vfill
\begin{center}
Voltairine de Cleyre
Collected Poems
\bigskip
Retrieved on 29 April 2010 from \href{http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist\_Archives/bright/cleyre/worm.html}{dwardmac.pitzer.edu}
\bigskip
\textbf{lib.anarhija.net}
\end{center}
% end final page with colophon
\end{document}