Upton Sinclair, ed. (1878–1968).
The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest. 1915. | | | | The Rough Rider |
By Bliss Carman |
(American poet of nature, 1861–1929) |
| | | TAKE up, who will, the challenge; | |
| Stand pat on graft and greed; | |
| Grow sleek on others’ labor, | |
| Surfeit on others’ need; | |
| Let paid and bloodless tricksters | 5 |
| Devise a legal way | |
| Our common right and justice | |
| “To sell, deny, delay.” | |
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| Not yesterday nor lightly | |
| We came to know that breed; | 10 |
| Our quarrel with that cunning | |
| Is old as Runnymede. | |
| We saw enfranchised insult | |
| Deploy in kingly line, | |
| When broke our sullen fury | 15 |
| On Rupert of the Rhine.… | |
| |
| Now, masking raid and rapine | |
| In debonair disguise, | |
| The foe we thought defeated | |
| Deludes our careless eyes, | 20 |
| Entrenched in law and largess | |
| And the vested wrong of things, | |
| Cloaking a fouler treason | |
| Than any faithless king’s. | |
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| He takes our life for wages, | 25 |
| He holds our land for rent, | |
| He sweats our little children | |
| To swell his cent per cent; | |
| With secret grip and levy | |
| On every crumb we eat, | 30 |
| He drives our sons to thieving, | |
| Our daughters to the street.… | |
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| Against the grim defenses | |
| Where might and murrain hide, | |
| Unswerving to the issue | 35 |
| Loose-reined and rough we ride | |
| Full tardily, to rescue | |
| Our heritage from wrong, | |
| And stablish it on manhood, | |
| A thousand times more strong. | 40 | | | |
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