The Man With the Hoe[A]
By Edwin Markham
(This poem, which was written after seeing Millet’s world-famous painting, was published in 1899 by a California school-principal, and made a profound impression. It has been hailed as “the battle-cry of the next thousand years”)
Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans
Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground,
The emptiness of ages in his face,
And on his back the burden of the world.
Who made him dead to rapture and despair,
A thing that grieves not and that never hopes,