The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest / The writings of philosophers, poets, novelists, social reformers, and others who have voiced the struggle against social injustice; selected from twenty-five languages; covering a period of five thousand years

by Unknown

Isabella, or The Pot of Basil

By John Keats

(One of the loveliest of English poets, 1795-1821; a chemist’s assistant, who lived unrecognized and died despairing)

With her two brothers this fair lady dwelt,

Enrichèd from ancestral merchandise,

And for them many a weary hand did swelt

In torchèd mines and noisy factories,

And many once proud-quiver’d loins did melt

In blood from stinging whip,—with hollow eyes

Many all day in dazzling river stood,

To take the rich-ored driftings of the flood.

For them the Ceylon diver held his breath,

And went all naked to the hungry shark;

For them his ears gushed blood; for them in death

The seal on the cold ice with piteous bark

Lay full of darts; for them alone did seethe

A thousand men in troubles wide and dark;

Half-ignorant, they turn’d an easy wheel,

That set sharp wracks at work, to pinch and peel.