_Nay_, _brothers_, _sing us battle-songs_ _With clear and ringing rhyme_; _Nay_, _show the world its hateful wrongs_, _And bring the better time_!
Thro’ the mists of years, Thro’ the lies of men, Your bloody sweat and tears, Your desperate hopes and fears Reach us once again.
Brothers, who long ago, For life’s bitter sake Toiled and suffered so, Robbery, insult, blow, Rope and sword and stake:
Toiled and suffered, till It burst, the brightening hope, “Might and right” and “will and skill,” That scorned, and does, and will, Sword and stake and rope!
Wat and Jack and John, Tyler, Straw, and Ball, Souls that faltered not, Hearts like white iron hot, Still we hear your call!
Yes, your “bell is rung,” Yes, for “now is time!” Come hither, every one, Brave ghosts whose day’s not done, Avengers of old rime,—
Come and lead the way, Hushed, implacable, Suffering no delay, Forgetting not that day Dreadful, hateful, fell,
When the liar king, The liar gentlemen, Wrought that foulest thing, Robbing, murdering Men who’d trusted them! { 36}
Come and lead the way, Hushed, implacable. What shall stop us, say, On that day, _our_ day?— _Not unloosened hell_!
Had you lived when a tyrant king Strove to make all the slaves of one, With nobles and with churchmen you Had stood unflinching, pure and true, To annihilate that hateful thing Green Runnymeade beat out of John?
Had you lived when a wanton crew, Flash scoundrels of a day outdone, Trod down the toilers birth derides, With Cromwell and his Ironsides The brave days had discovered you, Where Naseby saw the gallants run?
And yet you,—this same knight in list For freedom in her narrow dawn Against that one, against those few, Vile king, vile nobles—you, yet you Stand by the bloody Capitalist, Fight with the pandar Gentleman!
The stars shone faint through the smoky blue; The church-bells were ringing; Three girls, arms laced, were passing through, Tramping and singing.
Their heads were bare; their short skirts swung As they went along; Their scarf-covered breasts heaved up, as they sung Their defiant song.
It was not too clean, their feminine lay, But it thrilled me quite With its challenge to task-master villainous day And infamous night,
With its threat to the robber rich, the proud, The respectable free. And I laughed and shouted to them aloud, And they shouted to me!