BOOK IV

Out of the Depths

The protest of the soul of man confronted with injustice and groping for a remedy.

The People's Anthem

BY EBENEZER ELLIOTT

(One of the leaders of the Chartist movement in England, 17811849; known as the "Poet of the People," and by his enemies as the "Corn-law Rhymer")

WHEN wilt thou save the people?

WHEN

O God of mercy! when?

Not kings and lords, but nations!.

Not thrones and crowns, but men!
Flowers of thy heart, O God, are they!
Let them not pass, like weeds, away!
Their heritage a sunless day!

God save the people!

Shall crime bring crime for ever,
Strength aiding still the strong?
Is it thy will, O Father!

That man shall toil for wrong?
"No!" say thy mountains; "No!" thy skies;
"Man's clouded sun shall brightly rise,
And songs be heard instead of sighs."
God save the people!

When wilt thou save the people?

O God of mercy! when?

The people, Lord! the people!

Not thrones and crowns, but men!
God save the people! thine they are;
Thy children, as thy angels fair;
Save them from bondage and despair!
God save the people!

The World's Way

BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

(One of the series of sonnets in which the English dramatist, 15641616, voiced his inmost soul)

TIRED with all these, for restful death I cry—

As, to behold desert a beggar born,

And needy nothing trimm'd in jollity,
And purest faith unhappily forsworn,

And gilded honor shamefully misplaced,
And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,
And right perfection wrongfully disgraced,
And strength by limping sway disabled,

And art made tongue-tied by authority,
And folly, doctor-like, controlling skill,
And simple truth miscall'd simplicity,

And captive Good attending captain Ill:

Tired with all these, from these would I be gone,
Save that, to die, I leave my Love alone.

Written in London, September, 1802

BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

(One of the great sonnets of England's poet of nature; 1770-1850. Poet laureate in 1843)

FRIEND! I know not which way I must look

For comfort, being, as I am, opprest

To think that now our life is only drest