A South-Sea Islander by Francis W. L. Adams. Upton Sinclair, ed. 1915. The Cry for Justice

Upton Sinclair, ed. (1878–1968).
The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest. 1915.

A South-Sea Islander

By Francis W. L. Adams

(English poet and rebel, 1862–1893; his life, a brief struggle with poverty and disease, was ended by his own hand)


ALOLL in the warm clear water,
On her back with languorous limbs
She lies. The baby upon her breast
Paddles and falls and swims.

With half-closed eyes she smiles,	5
Guarding it with her hands;
And the sob swells up in my heart—
In my heart that understands.

Dear, in the English country,
The hatefullest land on earth,	10
The mothers are starved and the children die
And death is better than birth!