Modern Prose And Poetry; For Secondary Schools Part 35

My Summer in a Garden Charles Dudley Warner Being a Boy " " "

In the Wilderness " " "

My Winter on the Nile " " "

On Horseback " " "

Back-log Studies " " "

A Journey to Nature A.C. Wheeler The Making of a Country Home " "

A Self-supporting Home Kate V. St. Maur Folks back Home Eugene Wood Adventures in Contentment David Grayson Adventures in Friends.h.i.+p " "

The Friendly Road " "

New Lives for Old William Carleton A Living without a Boss Anonymous The Fat of the Land J.W. Streeter The Jonathan Papers Elizabeth Woodbridge Adopting an Abandoned Farm Kate Sanborn Out-door Studies T.W. Higginson The Women of America Elizabeth McCracken The Country Home E.P. Powell Blessing the Cornfields (in _Hiawatha_) H.W. Longfellow The Corn Song (in _The Huskers_) J.G. Whittier Charles Dudley Warner (in _American Writers of To-day_, pp. 89-103) H.C. Vedder

THE SINGING MAN

JOSEPHINE PRESTON PEABODY

I

He sang above the vineyards of the world.

And after him the vines with woven hands Clambered and clung, and everywhere unfurled Triumphing green above the barren lands; Till high as gardens grow, he climbed, he stood, Sun-crowned with life and strength, and singing toil, And looked upon his work; and it was good: The corn, the wine, the oil.

He sang above the noon. The topmost cleft That grudged him footing on the mountain scars He planted and despaired not; till he left His vines soft breathing to the host of stars.

He wrought, he tilled; and even as he sang, The creatures of his planting laughed to scorn The ancient threat of deserts where there sprang The wine, the oil, the corn!

He sang not for abundance.--Over-lords Took of his tilth. Yet was there still to reap, The portion of his labor; dear rewards Of sunlit day, and bread, and human sleep.

He sang for strength; for glory of the light.

He dreamed above the furrows, 'They are mine!'

When all he wrought stood fair before his sight With corn, and oil, and wine.

_Truly, the light is sweet_ _Yea, and a pleasant thing_ _It is to see the Sun._ _And that a man should eat_ _His bread that he hath won_;-- (_So is it sung and said_), _That he should take and keep_, _After his laboring_, _The portion of his labor in his bread_, _His bread that he hath won_; _Yea, and in quiet sleep_, _When all is done._

He sang; above the burden and the heat, Above all seasons with their fitful grace; Above the chance and change that led his feet To this last ambush of the Market-place.

'Enough for him,' they said--and still they say-- 'A crust, with air to breathe, and sun to s.h.i.+ne; He asks no more!'--Before they took away The corn, the oil, the wine.

He sang. No more he sings now, anywhere.

Light was enough, before he was undone.

They knew it well, who took away the air, --Who took away the sun; Who took, to serve their soul-devouring greed, Himself, his breath, his bread--the goad of toil;-- Who have and hold, before the eyes of Need, The corn, the wine,--the oil!

_Truly, one thing is sweet_ _Of things beneath the Sun_; _This, that a man should earn his bread and eat_, _Rejoicing in his work which he hath done._ _What shall be sung or said_ _Of desolate deceit_, _When others take his bread_; _His and his children's bread?_-- _And the laborer hath none._ _This, for his portion now, of all that he hath done._ _He earns; and others eat._ _He starves;--they sit at meat_ _Who have taken away the Sun._

II

Seek him now, that singing Man.

Look for him, Look for him In the mills, In the mines; Where the very daylight pines,-- He, who once did walk the hills!

You shall find him, if you scan Shapes all unbefitting Man, Bodies warped, and faces dim.

In the mines; in the mills Where the ceaseless thunder fills s.p.a.ces of the human brain Till all thought is turned to pain.

Where the skirl of wheel on wheel, Grinding him who is their tool, Makes the shattered senses reel To the numbness of the fool.

Perisht thought, and halting tongue-- (Once it spoke;--once it sung!) Live to hunger, dead to song.

Only heart-beats loud with wrong Hammer on,--_How long?_ ... _How long?_--_How long?_

Search for him; Search for him; Where the crazy atoms swim Up the fiery furnace-blast.

You shall find him, at the last,-- He whose forehead braved the sun,-- Wreckt and tortured and undone.

Where no breath across the heat Whispers him that life was sweet; But the sparkles mock and flare, Scattering up the crooked air.

(Blackened with that bitter mirk,-- Would G.o.d know His handiwork?)

Thought is not for such as he; Naught but strength, and misery; Since, for just the bite and sup, Life must needs be swallowed up.

Only, reeling up the sky, Hurtling flames that hurry by, Gasp and flare, with _Why_--_Why_, ... _Why?_...

Why the human mind of him Shrinks, and falters and is dim When he tries to make it out: What the torture is about.-- Why he breathes, a fugitive Whom the World forbids to live.

Why he earned for his abode, Habitation of the toad!

Why his fevered day by day Will not serve to drive away Horror that must always haunt:-- ... _Want_ ... _Want!_ Nightmare shot with waking pangs;-- Tightening coil, and certain fangs, Close and closer, always nigh ...

... _Why?_... _Why?_

Why he labors under ban That denies him for a man.

Why his utmost drop of blood Buys for him no human good; Why his utmost urge of strength Only lets Them starve at length;-- Will not let him starve alone; He must watch, and see his own Fade and fail, and starve, and die.

... _Why?_... _Why?_ . . . . . . .

Heart-beats, in a hammering song, Heavy as an ox may plod, Goaded--goaded--faint with wrong, Cry unto some ghost of G.o.d ... _How long_?... _How long?_ ... _How long?_

III

Seek him yet. Search for him!

You shall find him, spent and grim; In the prisons, where we pen These unsightly shards of men.

Sheltered fast; Housed at length; Clothed and fed, no matter how!-- Where the householders, aghast, Measure in his broken strength Nought but power for evil, now.

Beast-of-burden drudgeries Could not earn him what was his: He who heard the world applaud Glories seized by force and fraud, He must break,--he must take!-- Both for hate and hunger's sake.

He must seize by fraud and force; He must strike, without remorse!

Seize he might; but never keep.

Strike, his once!--Behold him here.

(Human life we buy so cheap, Who should know we held it dear?)

No denial,--no defence From a brain bereft of sense, Any more than penitence.

But the heart-beats now, that plod Goaded--goaded--dumb with wrong, Ask not even a ghost of G.o.d ... _How long_?

_When the Sea gives up its dead,_ _Prison caverns, yield instead_ _This, rejected and despised;_ _This, the Soiled and Sacrificed!_ _Without form or comeliness;_ _Shamed for us that did transgress_ _Bruised, for our iniquities,_ _With the stripes that are all his!_ _Face that wreckage, you who can._ _It was once the Singing Man._

IV

Must it be?--Must we then Render back to G.o.d again This His broken work, this thing, For His man that once did sing?

Will not all our wonders do?

Gifts we stored the ages through, (Trusting that He had forgot)-- Gifts the Lord required not?

Would the all-but-human serve!

Monsters made of stone and nerve; Towers to threaten and defy Curse or blessing of the sky; Shafts that blot the stars with smoke; Lightnings harnessed under yoke; Sea-things, air-things, wrought with steel, That may smite, and fly, and feel!