Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, STRIKES, by AMOS RUSSEL WELLS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

STRIKES, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Who is struck when the workmen strike?
Last Line: If you give him the law, with the law he will strike.
Subject(s): Labor Unions; Strikes; Labor Disputes; Lockouts


Who is struck when the workmen strike?
Butchers and bakers and the like?
The wives and the children everywhere,
Purses empty and cupboards bare?
Yes, these are struck when the workmen strike.

When the workmen strike, just what is struck?
The rich man's hoard and the gambler's luck?
The stock exchange and its crazy crowd?
The corpulent bank and the palace proud?
Yes, these, when the workmen strike, are struck.

When the workmen strike, what is struck, ah, what?
The common weal of the common lot?
The average purse, just yours and mine,
And the average home, neither poor nor fine?
Yes, these are struck when the workmen strike.

It's a bungling way, this striking way,
And the world should have passed it many a day.
It's a strike in the dark, and no one knows
Just who are struck, whether friends or foes,
And who struck worst, when the workmen strike.

Yet the workman, brave and strong and true,
When the cupboard is bare what can he do?
When the children cry and the wage is wrong,
And the courts are closed and his hands are strong,
Then what, but strike, can the workman do?

'Tis the age of mind, 'tis the science age,
And the world is beyond the fisty stage.
The workman knows how to manage machines,
And he gladly will use a more civilized means:
If you give him the law, with the law he will strike.





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