May 1, 2014

• Happy May Day

  You know May Day isn't really about pole dancing and baskets

  The Worker's Maypole

  Walter Crane

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  Written: April 13, 1894 for The Workers Maypole cartoon;
  
  

  ---

  World Workers, whatever may bind ye,
  This day let your work be undone:
  Cast the clouds of the winter behind ye,
  And come forth and be glad in the sun.

  Now again while the green earth rejoices
  In the bud and the blossom of May
  Lift your hearts up again, and your voices,
  And keep merry the World's Labour Day.

  Let the winds lift your banners from far lands
  With a message of strife and of hope:
  Raise the Maypole aloft with its garlands
  That gathers your cause in its scope.

  It is writ on each ribbon that flies
  That flutters from fair Freedom's heart:
  If still far be the crown and the prize
  In its winning may each take a part.

  Your cause is the hope of the world,
  In your strife is the life of the race,
  The workers' flag Freedom unfurled
  Is the veil of the bright future's face.

  Be ye many or few drawn together,
  Let your message be clear on this day;
  Be ye birds of the spring, of one feather
  In this--that ye sing on May-Day.

  Of the new life that still lieth hidden,
  Though its shadow is cast before;
  The new birth of hope that unbidden
  Surely comes, as the sea to the shore.

  Stand fast, then, Oh Workers, your ground,
  Together pull, strong and united:
  Link your hands like a chain the world round,
  If you will that your hopes be requited.

  When the World's Workers, sisters and brothers,
  Shall build, in the new coming years,
  A lair house of life--not for others,
  For the earth and its fulness is theirs.

  

  have a lovely day!

  • 2:50 pm
  • 16 Comments