Page:The cry for justice - an anthology of the literature of social protest. - (IA cryforjusticea00sinc).pdf/263

 "New" Women

(See page 240)

We are not new! If you would understand us, go back two thousand years, and study our descent; our breed is our explanation. We are the daughters of our fathers as well as our mothers. In our dreams we still hear the clash of the shields of our forebears, as they struck them together before battle and raised the shout of "Freedom!" In our dreams it is with us still, and when we wake it breaks from our own lips. We are the daughters of these men.

Bread and Roses

(In a parade of the strikers of Lawrence, Mass., some young girls carried a banner inscribed, "We want Bread, and Roses too!")

As we come marching, marching, in the beauty of the day, A million darkened kitchens, a thousand mill-lofts gray Are touched with all the radiance that a sudden sun discloses, For the people hear us singing, "Bread and Roses, Bread and Roses."

As we come marching, marching, we battle, too, for men— For they are women's children and we mother them again. Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes— Hearts starve as well as bodies: Give us Bread, but give us Roses!