Upton Sinclair, ed. (1878–1968).
The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest. 1915. | | | To Labor
(From “In This Our World”) |
By Charlotte Perkins Gilman |
(America’s most brilliant woman poet and critic; born 1860) |
| | | SHALL you complain who feed the world? | |
| Who clothe the world? | |
| Who house the world? | |
| Shall you complain who are the world, | |
| Of what the world may do? | 5 |
| As from this hour | |
| You use your power, | |
| The world must follow you! | |
| |
| The world’s life hangs on your right hand! | |
| Your strong right hand, | 10 |
| Your skilled right hand, | |
| You hold the whole world in your hand, | |
| See to it what you do! | |
| Or dark or light, | |
| Or wrong or right, | 15 |
| The world is made by you! | |
| |
| Then rise as you never rose before! | |
| Nor hoped before! | |
| Nor dared before! | |
| And show as was never shown before, | 20 |
| The power that lies in you! | |
| Stand all as one! | |
| See justice done! | |
| Believe, and Dare, and Do! | | | | |
|
|
