Upton Sinclair, ed. (1878–1968). rn The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest. 1915.

The Ship of Humanity
(From “Gloucester Moors”)

Moody, William Vaughn

William Vaughn Moody

(American poet and dramatist, 1869–1910)

GOD, dear God! Does she know her port,

Though she goes so far about?

Or blind astray, does she make her sport

To brazen and chance it out?

I watched when her captains passed:

She were better captainless.

Men in the cabin, before the mast,

But some were reckless and some aghast,

And some sat gorged at mess.

By her battened hatch I leaned and caught

Sounds from the noisome hold,—

Cursing and sighing of souls distraught

And cries too sad to be told.

Then I strove to go down and see;

But they said, “Thou art not of us!”

I turned to those on the deck with me

And cried, “Give help!” But they said, “Let be:

Our ship sails faster thus.”

Jill-o’er-the-ground is purple blue,

Blue is the quaker-maid,

The alder-clump where the brook comes through

Breeds cresses in its shade.

To be out of the moiling street,

With its swelter and its sin!

Who has given to me this sweet,

And given my brother dust to eat?

And when will his wage come in?