Monday, April 30, 2007




TOMORROW IS MAYDAY:
THE REAL LABOUR DAY
Tomorrow is Mayday, and to celebrate the event Blogger ate the post that I had been almost 3 hours in preparing. Anyways, here's the piece of poetry that I hoped to open with. Hopefully I'll have enough time to recreate the planned post tomorrow.
The Workers' Maypole
by Walter Crane
World Workers, whatever may bind ye,
This day let your work be undone;
Cast the clouds of the winter behind ye,
And come forth and be glad in the sun.
Now again while the green earth rejoices
In the bud and the blossom of May
Lift your hearts up again, and your voices,
And keep merry the World's Labour Day.
Let the winds lift your banners from far lands
With a message of strife and of hope;
Raise the maypole aloft with it garlands
That gathers your cause in its scope.
It is writ on each ribbon that flies
That flutters from fair Freedom's heart;
If still far be the crown and the prise
In the winning may each take a part.
Your cause is the hope of the world,
In your strife is the life of the race,
The workers' flag freedom unfurled
Is the veil of the bright future's face.
Be ye many or few drawn together,
Let your message be clear on this day;
Be ye birds of the spring, of one feather
In this--that you sing on May-Day.
Of the new life that lieth hidden,
Though its shadow is cast before;
The new birth of hope that unbidden
Surely comes, as the sea to the shore.
Stand fast, then, Oh Workers, your ground,
Together pull strong and united;
Link your hands like a chain the world round,
If you will that your hopes be requited.
When the Worlds' Workers, sisters and brothers,
Shall build, in the new coming years,
A lair house of life--not for others,
For the earth and its fullness is theirs.