Come forth, you workers! <br /> Let the fires go cold— <br /> Let the iron spill out, out of the troughs— <br /> Let the iron run wild <br /> Like a red bramble on the floors— <br /> Leave the mill and the foundry and the mine <br /> And the shrapnel lying on the wharves— <br /> Leave the desk and the shuttle and the loom— <br /> Come, <br /> With your ashen lives, <br /> Your lives like dust in your hands. <br /> I call upon you, workers. <br /> It is not yet light <br /> But I beat upon your doors. <br /> You say you await the Dawn <br /> But I say you are the Dawn. <br /> Come, in your irresistible unspent force <br /> And make new light upon the mountains. <br /> You have turned deaf ears to others— <br /> Me you shall hear. <br /> Out of the mouths of turbines, <br /> Out of the turgid throats of engines, <br /> Over the whistling steam, <br /> You shall hear me shrilly piping. <br /> Your mills I shall enter like the wind, <br /> And blow upon your hearts, <br /> Kindling the slow fire. <br /> They think they have tamed you, workers— <br /> Beaten you to a tool <br /> To scoop up hot honor <br /> Till it be cool— <br /> But out of the passion of the red frontiers <br /> A great flower trembles and burns and glows <br /> And each of its petals is a people. <br /> Come forth, you workers— <br /> Clinging to your stable <br /> And your wisp of warm straw— <br /> Let the fires grow cold, <br /> Let the iron spill out of the troughs, <br /> Let the iron run wild <br /> Like a red bramble on the floors…. <br /> As our forefathers stood on the prairies <br /> So let us stand in a ring, <br /> Let us tear up their prisons like grass <br /> And beat them to barricades— <br /> Let us meet the fire of their guns <br /> With a greater fire, <br /> Till the birds shall fly to the mountains <br /> For one safe bough.<br /><br />Lola Ridge<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/reveille-8/
