Explore "No Master" by William Morris on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
(AIR: "The Hardy Norseman. ")
SAITH man to man, We've heard and known / That we no master need / To live upon this earth, our own, / In fair and manly deed. / The grief of slaves long passed away / For us hath forged the chain, / Till now each worker's patient day / Builds up the House of Pain.
And we, shall we too, crouch and quail, / Ashamed, afraid of strife, / And lest our lives untimely fail / Embrace the Death in Life? / Nay, cry aloud, and have no fear, / We few against the world; / Awake, arise! the hope we bear / Against the curse is hurled.
It grows and grows-are we the same, / The feeble band, the few? / Or what are these with eyes aflame, / And hands to deal and do? / This is the host that bears the word, / "NO MASTER HIGH OR LOW"- / A lightning flame, a shearing sword, / A storm to overthrow.