Explore "Alton Locke's Song" by Charles Kingsley on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Weep, weep, weep and weep, / For pauper, dolt, and slave! / Hark! from wasted moor and fen, / Feverous alley, stifling den, / Swells the wail of Saxon men -- / Work! or the grave!
Down, down, down and down, / With idler, knave, and tyrant! / Why for sluggards cark and moil? / He that will not live by toil / Has no right on English soil! / God's word's our warrant!
Up, up, up and up! / Face your game and play it! / The night is past, behold the sun! / The idols fall, the lie is done! / The Judge is set, the doom begun! / Who shall stay it?
On Torridge, May 1849.