Page:The Statues in the Block and Other Poems (1881).djvu/81



O toil all day and lie worn-out at night; To rise for all the years to slave and sleep, And breed new broods to do no other thing In toiling, bearing, breeding life is this To myriad men, too base for man or brute.

To serve for common duty, while the brain Is hot with high desire to be distinct; To fill the sand-grain place among the stones That build the social wall in million sameness, Is life by leave, and death by insignificance.

To live the morbid years, with dripping blood Of sacrificial labor for a Thought; To take the dearest hope and lay it down Beneath the crushing wheels for love of Freedom;