So will they smite your blind eyes till you see,
And lash your naked backs until you know
That wasted blood can never set you free
From fettered thraldom to the Common Foe.
Then you will find that "nation" is a name
And boundaries are things that don't exist;
That Labor's bondage, worldwide, is the same,
And ONE the enemy it must resist.
Montreal, 1914.
THE GIRLS WHO SANG FOR US
What does it mean to us that Spring is here?
We asked ourselves within the great grey hall.
We shall not feel the magic of her call;
This day, like others, will be dull and drear.
And then you sang . . . and brought so very near,
The fragrant world beyond the prison wall,
The tender fields, the trees and grass, and all
The hopes and dreams that every man holds dear.
O, silvery voices, sweet with life and youth
Brushing our grey lives with your rainbow wings--
Lives that were stern and bitter with old wrong,
And cleansing them with beauty and with truth;
Reviving memories of vanished springs--
Making us whole with miracles of song!
TO EDITH
Do you remember how we walked that night
In early spring?
And how we found a new and sweet delight
In everything?
Do you remember how the air was filled
With mist and moonlight--how our hearts were thrilled--
And seemed to sing?
What if these walls shut out the world for me
And heaven too,
There still lives fragrant in my memory
The thought of you.
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