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

Made slaves by might of a superior army!

Poverty

By Alcaeus

(Greek lyric poet, B.C. 611-580; banished for his resistance to tyrants. Translation by Sir William Jones)

The worst of ills, and hardest to endure,

Past hope, past cure,

Is Penury, who, with her sister-mate

Disorder, soon brings down the loftiest state,

And makes it desolate.

This truth the sage of Sparta told,