"THE MAN WITH THE HOE." WRITTEN AFTER SEEING MILLET'S WORLD-FAMOUS PAINTING. "God made man in His own image, In the image of God made He him."-GENESIS. BOWED by the weight of centuries he leans And on his back the burden of the world. Who loosened and let down this brutal jaw? Is this the Thing the Lord God made and gave To have dominion over sea and land; To trace the stars and search the heavens for power; To feel the passion of Eternity? Is this the Dream He dreamed who shaped the suns More tongued with censure of the world's blind greed More filled with signs and portents for the soul— More fraught with menace to the universe. What gulfs between him and the seraphim! Are Plato and the swing of Pleiades? What the long reaches of the peaks of song, ? Through this dread shape the suffering ages look; Time's tragedy is in that aching stoop; Through this dread shape humanity betrayed, Cries protest to the Judges of the World, O masters, lords and rulers in all lands, Is this the handiwork you give to God, This monstrous thing distorted and soul-quenched? Give back the upward looking and the light; O masters, lords and rulers in all lands, EDWIN MARKHAM. From "The Man With the Hoe and Other Poems." Copyright, 1899, by Edwin Markham. Published by Doubleday & McClure Co. "THE MAN WITH THE HOE." A REPLY. "Let us a little permit Nature to take her own way she better understands her own affairs than we."-MONTAIGNE. NATURE reads not our labels, "great" and "small"; Accepts she one and all Who, striving, win and hold the vacant place; Him, there, rough-cast, with rigid arm and limb, Of his rude realm ruler and demigod, Lord of the rock and clod. With Nature is no "better" and no "worse," On this bared head no curse. Humbled it is and bowed; so is he crowned Diverse the burdens on the one stern road Varied the toil, but neither high nor low. He that has put out strength, lo, he is strong; Nature but questions,-"This one, shall he stay? |