Upton Sinclair, ed. (1878–1968). rn The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest. 1915.

Country Life
(From “The Village”)

Crabbe, George

George Crabbe

(One of the earliest of English realistic poets, 1754–1832; called “The Poet of the Poor”)

OR will you deem them amply paid in health,

Labor’s fair child, that languishes with wealth?

Go then! and see them rising with the sun,

Through a long course of daily toil to run;

See them beneath the dog-star’s raging heat,

When the knees tremble and the temples beat;

Behold them, leaning on their scythes, look o’er

The labor past, and toils to come explore;

See them alternate suns and showers engage,

And hoard up aches and anguish for their age;

Through fens and marshy moors their steps pursue,

Where their warm pores imbibe the evening dew;

Then own that labor may as fatal be

To these thy slaves, as thine excess to thee.