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

The True Imperialism

By William Watson

(English poet, conspicuous for his courage in opposing the Boer war; born 1858)

Here, while the tide of conquest rolls

Against the distant golden shore,

The starved and stunted human souls

Are with us more and more.

Vain is your Science, vain your Art,

Your triumphs and your glories vain,

To feed the hunger of their heart

And famine of their brain.

Your savage deserts howling near,

Your wastes of ignorance, vice, and shame,—

Is there no room for victories here,

No fields for deeds of fame?

Arise and conquer while ye can

The foe that in your midst resides,

And build within the mind of Man

The Empire that abides.