Upton Sinclair, ed. (1878–1968).
The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest. 1915. | | | To a Bourgeois Litterateur
(Who referred to a group of agitators as “Professional Hoboes”) |
By Max Eastman |
(Editor of “The Masses,” 1883–1969) |
| | | HOW old, my friend, is that fine-pointed pen | |
| Wherewith in smiling quietude you trace | |
| The maiden maxims of your writing-place, | |
| And o’er this gripped and mortal-sweating den | |
| And battle-pit of hunger, now and then | 5 |
| Dip out, with nice and intellectual grace, | |
| The faultless wisdoms of a nurtured race | |
| Of pale-eyed, pink, and perfect gentlemen? | |
| |
| How long have art and wit and poetry, | |
| With all their power, been content, like you, | 10 |
| To gild the smiling fineness of the few, | |
| To filmy-curtain what they dare not see | |
| In multudinous reality— | |
| The rough and bloody soul of what is true? | | | | |
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