I am the voice of Toil and Hunger, pain and woe; I am the swordless, sorrowful, unresting seed of war. I am the clutch'd and bleeding hand, the asker and the knower, I am the friend of all my kind, the lover of the poor. I am the voice of him who sits, and watches in the night; I am the bearer of all tales, and comforts, and alarms; I am the mother hen who calls her famishing brood to light, I am the nurse of all great men, and all good women's arms. I am the sower and the seed of every striving soul, I am the tyrant and the slave, the war, and what shall be; I am the one thing under heaven that naught can bend or bow, I am the power of all the earth, the joy of all the sea. The dust and sweat and blood of Toil, the up-turned, furrow'd sod, Are known to me, are part of me, and I part of them all; My ear is on the railway-train, my hand upon the rod, My heart is with the smithy-stroke, the fire, the forge, the mall. The face of Hunger's self is mine, the children wan and weak; The sick, the lost, the old, the lone, the weary, and the sad; The prisoner in his dungeon deep, the felon on the bleak Therefore my sword is in my hand, my word is on my tongue, My love is as a flame to burn, and as a banner hung; I am the arm of all who live, the tongue of all the dead, I am the first, the last, the peace, the fury, and the dread. I am the power of patience and of impatience too; I am the bitter cold of life, the burning heat of woe; I am the soul of all that lives, the beauty of the night; I am the lord of lordless lands, the giver of the light. I am the voice of Toil and Hunger, pain and woe; I am the swordless, sorrowful, unresting seed of war. I am the clutch'd and bleeding hand, the asker and the knower, I am the friend of all my kind, the lover of the poor. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...PEACE; A STUDY by CHARLES STUART CALVERLEY SOLACE by CLARISSA SCOTT DELANY ELEGY: 3. CHANGE by JOHN DONNE A LETTER FROM A GIRL TO HER OWN OLD AGE by ALICE MEYNELL SKIPPER IRESON'S RIDE by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER TO MY FRIENDS, WHO RIDICULED A TENDER LEAVE-TAKING by MATTHEW ARNOLD |