Rebel Verses

<h2><SPAN name="The_Labourers_Hymn" id="The_Labourers_Hymn"></SPAN>The Labourers' Hymn</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">We have slaved for you long days and nights of bent and weary lives;<br/></span> <span class="i0">Giving the strength of our muscles, our sweat, and our sons and wives;<br/></span> <span class="i0">With less food than your horses, and homes less warm than your hives.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">We have ploughed and dug and sowed and reaped the seasons through and through,<br/></span> <span class="i0">We have gathered in your grain and raised the 'Harvest Home' for you,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Who gave starvation pay to us and kept from us our due.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">We asked for land and freedom, the right to till our own;<br/></span> <span class="i0">To harvest and to garner for ourselves, what we had sown;<br/></span> <span class="i0">We sought the fruit of our labour; you granted us a stone.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Who gave our lives to your children? Who pledged our souls to thine?<br/></span> <span class="i0">Who made you Lord and Master and placed us with the kine?<br/></span> <span class="i0">Who gave you leave to drink our sweat and mix our blood with wine?<br/></span> <span class="pagenum">[16]</span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">To save the land for your children, who denied their country's wage,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Our sons have left their homes to fight, to guard your heritage;<br/></span> <span class="i0">When they return&mdash;Ah! woe to you before their righteous rage.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">You held the land in sufferance to answer for your right,<br/></span> <span class="i0">To cherish those beneath you and lead them into fight;<br/></span> <span class="i0">You have refused all payment, and trampled in your might.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Our sons shall trample you and yours in their bloody and righteous rage,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Who hid at home in shelter whilst they paid for the land its wage:<br/></span> <span class="i0">They fought and died for the Land; and they shall enter their heritage.<br/></span> <span class="pagenum">[17]</span></div> </div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />