Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE LIVING DEAD by RALPH CHAPLIN

First Line: MOURN NOT THE DEAD THAT IN THE COOL EARTH LIE
Last Line: AND DARE NOT SPEAK!
Subject(s): FREEDOM; INDUSTRIAL WORKERS OF THE WORLD (I.W.W.); LABOR UNIONS; LIBERTY;
Mourn not the dead that in the cool earth lie—
Dust unto dust—
The calm sweet earth that mothers all who die
As all men must;

Mourn not your captured comrades who must dwell—
Too strong to strive—
Each in his steel-bound coffin of a cell, buried alive;

But rather mourn the apathetic throng—
The cowed and meek—
Who see the world's great anguish and its wrong
And dare not speak!



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