Chants for Socialists

Part 1

Transcribed from the 1885 Socialist League Office edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org

CHANTS FOR SOCIALISTS

BY WILLIAM MORRIS.

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CONTENTS:

The Day is Coming. No Master.

The Voice of Toil. All for the Cause.

The Message of the March Wind. The March of the Workers. Down Among the Dead Men.

* * * * *

LONDON: Socialist League Office, 13 FARRINGDON ROAD, HOLBORN VIADUCT, E.C. 1885.

PRICE ONE PENNY.

* * * * *

I have looked at this claim by the light of history and my own conscience, and it seems to me so looked at to be a most just claim, and that resistance to it means nothing short of a denial of the hope of civilisation.

This then is the claim:—

It is right and necessary that all men should have work to do which shall be worth doing, and be of itself pleasant to do; and which should be done under such conditions as would make it neither over-wearisome nor over-anxious.

Turn that claim about as I may, think of it as long as I can, I cannot find that it is an exorbitant claim; yet again I say if Society would or could admit it, the face of the world would be changed; discontent and strife and dishonesty would be ended. To feel that we were doing work useful to others and pleasant to ourselves, and that such work and its due reward could not fail us! What serious harm could happen to us then? And the price to be paid for so making the world happy is Revolution.

THE DAY IS COMING.

COME hither lads, and hearken, for a tale there is to tell, Of the wonderful days a-coming when all shall be better than well.

And the tale shall be told of a country, a land in the midst of the sea, And folk shall call it England in the days that are going to be.

There more than one in a thousand in the days that are yet to come, Shall have some hope of the morrow, some joy of the ancient home.

For then—laugh not, but listen, to this strange tale of mine— All folk that are in England shall be better lodged than swine.

Then a man shall work and bethink him, and rejoice in the deeds of his hand, Nor yet come home in the even too faint and weary to stand.

Men in that time a-coming shall work and have no fear For to-morrow’s lack of earning and the hunger-wolf anear.

I tell you this for a wonder, that no man then shall be glad Of his fellow’s fall and mishap to snatch at the work he had.

For that which the worker winneth shall then be his indeed, Nor shall half be reaped for nothing by him that sowed no seed.

O strange new wonderful justice! But for whom shall we gather the gain? For ourselves and for each of our fellows, and no hand shall labour in vain.

Then all mine and all thine shall be ours, and no more shall any man crave For riches that serve for nothing but to fetter a friend for a slave.

And what wealth then shall be left us when none shall gather gold To buy his friend in the market, and pinch and pine the sold?

Part 2

Nay, what save the lovely city, and the little house on the hill, And the wastes and the woodland beauty, and the happy fields we till.

And the homes of ancient stories, the tombs of the mighty dead; And the wise men seeking out marvels, and the poet’s teeming head;

And the painter’s hand of wonder; and the marvellous fiddle-bow, And the banded choirs of music:—all those that do and know.

For all these shall be ours and all men’s, nor shall any lack a share Of the toil and the gain of living in the days when the world grows fair.

Ah! such are the days that shall be! But what are the deeds of to-day, In the days of the years we dwell in, that wear our lives away?

Why, then, and for what are we waiting? There are three words to speak. WE WILL IT, and what is the foeman but the dream-strong wakened and weak?

O why and for what are we waiting? while our brothers droop and die, And on every wind of the heavens a wasted life goes by.

How long shall they reproach us where crowd on crowd they dwell, Poor ghosts of the wicked city, the gold-crushed hungry hell?

Through squalid life they laboured, in sordid grief they died, Those sons of a mighty mother, those props of England’s pride.

They are gone; there is none can undo it, nor save our souls from the curse; But many a million cometh, and shall they be better or worse?

It is we must answer and hasten, and open wide the door For the rich man’s hurrying terror, and the slow-foot hope of the poor.

Yea, the voiceless wrath of the wretched, and their unlearned discontent, We must give it voice and wisdom till the waiting-tide be spent.

Come, then, since all things call us, the living and the dead And o’er the weltering tangle a glimmering light is shed.

Come, then, let us cast off fooling, and put by ease and rest For the CAUSE alone is worthy till the good days bring the best

Come, join in the only battle wherein no man can fail, Where whoso fadeth and dieth, yet his deed shall still prevail.

Ah! come, cast off all fooling, for this, at least we know: That the Dawn and the Day is coming, and forth the Banners go.

THE VOICE OF TOIL.

I heard men saying, Leave hope and praying, All days shall be as all have been; To-day and to-morrow bring fear and sorrow The never-ending toil between.

When Earth was younger mid toil and hunger, In hope we strove, and our hands were strong Then great men led us, with words they fed us, And bade us right the earthly wrong.

Go read in story their deeds and glory, Their names amidst the nameless dead; Turn then from lying to us slow-dying In that good world to which they led;

Where fast and faster our iron master, The thing we made, for ever drives, Bids us grind treasure and fashion pleasure For other hopes and other lives.

Where home is a hovel and dull we grovel, Forgetting that the world is fair; Where no babe we cherish, lest its very soul perish Where our mirth is crime, our love a snare

Who now shall lead us, what god shall heed us As we lie in the hell our hands have won For us are no rulers but fools and befoolers, The great are fallen, the wise men gone

I heard men saying, Leave tears and praying, The sharp knife heedeth not the sheep; Are we not stronger than the rich and the wronger, When day breaks over dreams and sleep?

Come, shoulder to shoulder ere the world grows older! Help lies in nought but thee and me; Hope is before us, the long years that bore us, Bore leaders more than men may be.

Let dead hearts tarry and trade and marry, And trembling nurse their dreams of mirth, While we the living our lives are giving To bring the bright new world to birth.

Come, shoulder to shoulder ere earth grows older! The Cause spreads over land and sea; Now the world shaketh, and fear awaketh, And joy at last for thee and me.

ALL FOR THE CAUSE.

Part 3

HEAR a word, a word in season, for the day is drawing nigh, When the Cause shall call upon us, some to live, and some to die!

He that dies shall not die lonely, many an one hath gone before, He that lives shall bear no burden heavier than the life they bore.

Nothing ancient is their story, e’en but yesterday they bled, Youngest they of earth’s belovëd, last of all the valiant dead.

E’en the tidings we are telling was the tale they had to tell, E’en the hope that our hearts cherish, was the hope for which they fell.

In the grave where tyrants thrust them, lies their labour and their pain, But undying from their sorrow springeth up the hope again.

Mourn not therefore, nor lament it that the world outlives their life; Voice and vision yet they give us, making strong our hands for strife.

Some had name, and fame, and honour, learn’d they were, and wise and strong; Some were nameless, poor, unlettered, weak in all but grief and wrong.

Named and nameless all live in us; one and all they lead us yet Every pain to count for nothing, every sorrow to forget.

Hearken how they cry, “O happy, happy ye that ye were born In the sad slow night’s departing, in the rising of the morn.

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