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

Cabin-boys cradled among the rigging, and they who steer

Hallucinated by the blue eyes of the vast sea-spaces,

All dream of it, evoke it when the evening falls;

Their raw desire to madness galls;

The wind’s soft kisses hover on their faces;

The wave awakens rolling images of soft embraces;

And their two arms implore

Stretched in a frantic cry towards the shore.

And they of offices and shops, the city tribes,

Merchants precise, keen reckoners, haggard scribes,