WHAT cometh here from west to east a-wending? And who are these, the marchers stern and slow? We bear the message that the rich are sending Aback to those who bade them wake and know. @3Now one, not one, nor thousands must they slay, But one and all if they would dusk the day.@1 We ask'd them for a life of toilsome earning, They bade us bide their leisure for our bread; We crav'd to speak to tell our woeful learning: We come back speechless, bearing back our dead. They will not learn; they have no ears to hearken; They turn their faces from the eyes of fate; Their gay-lit halls shut out the skies that darken. But, lo! this dead man knocking at the gate. Here lies the sign that we shall break our prison; Amidst the storm he won a prisoner's rest; But in the cloudy dawn the sun arisen Brings us our day of work to win the best. @3Not one, not one, nor thousands must they slay, But one and all if they would dusk the day.@1 | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HONEY DRIPPER by CLARENCE MAJOR SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: BARNEY HAINSFEATHER by EDGAR LEE MASTERS A MOTHER'S LOVE by JAMES MONTGOMERY HARVEST MOON: 1914 by JOSEPHINE PRESTON PEABODY ECSTACY by KENNETH SLADE ALLING |