| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
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| What Might Be Done |
| | | Charles Mackay (1814–89) |
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| WHAT might be done if men were wise— | |
| What glorious deeds, my suffering brother, | |
| Would they unite | |
| In love and right, | |
| And cease their scorn of one another? | 5 |
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| Oppression’s heart might be imbued | |
| With kindling drops of loving-kindness, | |
| And knowledge pour, | |
| From shore to shore, | |
| Light on the eyes of mental blindness. | 10 |
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| All slavery, warfare, lies, and wrongs, | |
| All vice and crime, might die together; | |
| And wine and corn, | |
| To each man born, | |
| Be free as warmth in summer weather. | 15 |
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| The meanest wretch that ever trod, | |
| The deepest sunk in guilt and sorrow, | |
| Might stand erect | |
| In self-respect, | |
| And share the teeming world to-morrow. | 20 |
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| What might be done? This might be done, | |
| And more than this, my suffering brother— | |
| More than the tongue | |
| E’er said or sung, | |
| If men were wise and lov’d each other. | 25 |
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