THE TOILER IN THE DARK
Reading edition
Beloved, cease thy slavery. Dear and most godlike, never keep Thine heart for sorrows less than thee. Thou who by day wouldst cease to weep, But who dost hug the dark, be free! Thy countenance most kingly bends Towards the earth; thy tressed hair With tarnished gauds, unworthy, blends; On shining shoulders dost thou bear The woes and whelming tyrannies Of this poor flesh that strives and dies: Not knowing that all thy many bands Are rotten through, and those grim shades That ride thy back and bind thine hands, Are of that realm that truth invades And conquers with a heavenly might; Lift up thine eyes: behold, the light! 1915.