Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.
VI. Human ExperienceThe Laborer
William Davis Gallagher (18081894)S
And likeness of thy God!—Who more?
A soul as dauntless ’mid the storm
Of daily life, a heart as warm
And pure, as breast e’er wore.
As moves the human mass among;
As much a part of the great plan
That with creation’s dawn began,
As any of the throng.
In station, or in wealth the chief?
The great, who coldly pass thee by,
With proud step and averted eye?
Nay! nurse not such belief.
What were the proud one’s scorn to thee?
A feather which thou mightest cast
Aside, as idly as the blast
The light leaf from the tree.
Absence of noble self-respect,
Death, in the breast’s consuming fires,
To that high nature which aspires
Forever, till thus checked;—
They chain thee to thy lowly lot;
Thy labor and thy life accursed.
O, stand erect, and from them burst,
And longer suffer not.
The great!—what better they than thou?
As theirs is not thy will as free?
Has God with equal favors thee
Neglected to endow?
Nor place—uncertain as the wind;
But that thou hast, which, with thy crust
And water, may despise the lust
Of both—a noble mind.
True faith, and holy trust in God,
Thou art the peer of any man.
Look up then; that thy little span
Of life may be well trod.