Upton Sinclair, ed. (1878–1968).
The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest. 1915. | | | Caliban in the Coal Mines
(From “Challenge”) |
By Louis Untermeyer |
(American poet, born 1885) |
| | | GOD, we don’t like to complain— | |
| We know that the mine is no lark— | |
| But—there’s the pools from the rain; | |
| But—there’s the cold and the dark. | |
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| God, You don’t know what it is— | 5 |
| You, in Your well-lighted sky, | |
| Watching the meteors whizz; | |
| Warm, with the sun always by. | |
| |
| God, if You had but the moon | |
| Stuck in Your cap for a lamp, | 10 |
| Even You’d tire of it soon, | |
| Down in the dark and the damp. | |
| |
| Nothing but blackness above, | |
| And nothing that moves but the cars— | |
| God, if You wish for our love, | 15 |
| Fling us a handful of stars! | | | | |
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