The Song of the Classes

by Ernest Jones Chartist leader and poet, 1819-1869; sentenced in 1848 to two years’ imprisonment. We plow and sow — we’re so very, very low That we delve in the dirty clay, ‘Till we bless the plain — with the golden grain, And the vale with the fragrant hay. Our place we know — we’reContinue reading “The Song of the Classes”

September 1, 1939

by WH Auden I sit in one of the dives On Fifty-second Street Uncertain and afraid As the clever hopes expire Of a low dishonest decade: Waves of anger and fear Circulate over the bright And the darkened lands of the earth, Obsessing our private lives; The unmentionable odour of death Offends the September night.Continue reading “September 1, 1939”

Contemplating Hell

by Bertolt Brecht Contemplating Hell, as I once heard it, My brother Shelley found it to be a place Much like the city of London, I, Who do not live in London, but in Los Angeles, Find, contemplating Hell, that it Must be even more like Los Angeles. Also in Hell, I do not doubtContinue reading “Contemplating Hell”

The Builders

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow All are architects of Fate, Working in these walls of Time; Some with massive deeds and great, Some with ornaments of rhyme. Nothing useless is, or low; Each thing in its place is best; And what seems but idle show Strengthens and supports the rest. For the structure that we raise,Continue reading “The Builders”