The Hymn of Labor

The world was made with labor: Strong fusing air and fire Strove before the years of birth, With awful deed and dire, And wrought from primal chaos Amidst the ancient night. The seas and shores which are the earth, And shapes of morning light. Yea, bound in frenzied orbits, The solar substance sped With travail of the moon and stars, And planets live and dead; And wombed and birthed in anguish, As heirs of all its toil, Earth's vale and hill and ribs of rock, And the rivers in her soil. Life was formed by labor: From out of the bubbling ooze. By cosmic ferment molded well, And tropic suns and dews, With stress of chemic struggle Were built with warding care The potent powers of earth and sea, And the wings of all the air. Yea, through the mystic process Of crystallizing form, To green growths sprung across the land, And bloods of cold and warm, The vital stream of being In flooding efforts swirled, And beast and bird and swimming fish Made animate the world. Man was wrought by labor: Fierce things of growth and might, Where waring species hold their sway, Keen eared and clear of sight. Toiled in craft and cunning And strength of ripening brain, Till rose the form that grasped the world And made it his domain. Yea, with red feud and ravage Of saber tooth and claw. With banding of the pack for might And filled or starving maw; From floundering saurians welter, Through grin and screech of ape, Struggled the deathless seed of life Up to human shape. And man hath made with labor: From his wild primal hour, Potent with transforming deeds. He hath wed will to power; Through war and peace untiring, To industry and art, Spending the might of all his thought And the hope of all his heart. Yea, tried in stress of effort And passions wise and vain, His zeal hath gathered wisdoms seed From fruits of joy and pain. His millioned cities echo; His ships have pathed the sea; And with bent brow he toils to make The world that yet will be.