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

The New Rome

Robert Buchanan

(English novelist and dramatist, 1814–1901)

A THOUSAND starve, a few are fed,

Legions of robbers rack the poor,

The rich man steals the widow’s bread,

And Lazarus dies at Dives’ door;

The Lawyer and the Priest adjust

The claims of Luxury and Lust

To seize the earth and hold the soil,

To store the grain they never reap;

Under their heels the white slaves toil,

While children wail and women weep!—

The gods are dead, but in their name

Humanity is sold to shame,

While (then as now!) the tinsel’d Priest

Sitteth with robbers at the feast,

Blesses the laden blood-stain’d board,

Weaves garlands round the butcher’s sword,

And poureth freely (now as then)

The sacramental blood of Men!