10 A Song for the Workers (1853)
Eliza Cook
“A Song for the Workers” by Eliza Cook is from the fourth volume of Cook’s Poems, published in 1853. The text is in the public domain, and this poem has been reproduced from Google Books.
The editorial notes are available under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license. Unless otherwise attributed, they were written by Dr. Kylee-Anne Hingston at the University of Saskatchewan.
A Song for the Workers
(Written for the Early Closing Movement.)[1]
LET Man toil to win his living,
Work is not a task to spurn;
Poor is gold of others’ giving,
To the silver that we earn.
5
Let Man proudly take his station
At the smithy, loom, or plough;
The richest crown-pearls in a nation
Hang from Labour’s reeking brow.
Though her hand grows hard with duty,
10
Filling up the common Fate;
Let fair Woman’s cheek of beauty
Never blush to own its state.
Let fond Woman’s heart of feeling
Never be ashamed to spread
15
Industry and honest dealing,
As a barter for her bread.
Work on bravely, GOD’s own daughters!
Work on stanchly, GOD’s own sons!
But when Life has too rough waters,
20
Truth must fire her minute guns.
Shall ye be unceasing drudges?
Shall the cry upon your lips
Never make your selfish judges
Less severe with Despot-whips?
25
Shall the mercy that we cherish,
As old England’s primest boast,
See no slaves but those who perish
On a far and foreign coast?
When we reckon hives of money,
30
Owned by Luxury and Ease,
Is it just to grasp the honey
While Oppression chokes the bees?
Is it just the poor and lowly
Should be held as soulless things?
35
Have they not a claim as holy
As rich men, to angels’ wings?
Shall we burthen Boyhood’s muscle?
Shall the young Girl mope and lean,
Till we hear the dead leaves rustle
40
On a tree that should be green?
Shall we bar the brain from thinking
Of aught else than work and woe?
Shall we keep parched lips from drinking
Where refreshing waters flow?
45
Shall we strive to shut out Reason,
Knowledge, Liberty, and Health?
Shall all Spirit-light be treason
To the mighty King of Wealth?
Shall we stint with niggard measure,
50
Human joy, and human rest?
Leave no profit—give no pleasure,
To the toiler’s human breast?
Shall our Men, fatigued to loathing.
Plod on sickly, worn, and bowed?
55
Shall our Maidens sew fine clothing,
Dreaming of their own, white shroud?
No! for Right is up and asking
Loudly for a juster lot;
And Commerce must not let her tasking
60
Form a nation’s canker spot.
Work on bravely, GOD’s own daughters!
Work on stanchly, GOD’s own sons!
But till ye have smoother waters,
Let Truth fire her minute guns!
Works Cited
“Early Closing Association.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 9 Feb. 2024, en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Early_Closing_Association&oldid=1205514709. Accessed 14 June 2024.
Cook, Eliza. “A Song for the Workers.” Poems, vol. 4, Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., 1853, pp. 74–76. Google Books, www.google.ca/books/edition/Poems_in_3_4_Vols/abg0AAAAMAAJ.
Timney, Meghan. Of Factory Girls and Serving Maids: The Literary Labours of Working‐Class Women in Victorian Britain. PhD dissertation, U of Dalhousie, 2009.
- One critic thought this refered to the 1850 Factory Act; however, another scholar, Meghan Timney, says that it refers not to factories but the Early Closing Association for shopkeepers (112). See Wikipedia’s “Early Closing Association” for more information. ↵
