Page:The cry for justice - an anthology of the literature of social protest. - (IA cryforjusticea00sinc).pdf/211



(English philosopher, 1806-1873)

Hitherto, it is questionable if all the mechanical inventions yet made have lightened the day's toil of any human being.

The Man Under the Stone

(From "The Man with the Hoe and other Poems")

(See page 27)

When I see a workingman with mouths to feed, Up, day after day, in the dark before the dawn, And coming home, night after night, thro' the dusk, Swinging forward like some fierce silent animal, I see a man doomed to roll a huge stone up an endless steep. He strains it onward inch by stubborn inch, Crouched always in the shadow of the rock See where he crouches, twisted, cramped, misshapen! He lifts for their life; The veins knot and darken— Blood surges into his face Now he loses—now he wins— Now he loses—loses—(God of my soul!) He digs his feet into the earth— There's a movement of terrified effort It stirs—it moves!