Upton Sinclair, ed. (1878–1968).
The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest. 1915. | | | | The Bread Line |
By Berton Braley |
(Contemporary American poet) |
| | | WELL, here they are—they stand and stamp and shiver | |
| Waiting their food from some kind stranger hand, | |
| Their weary limbs with eagerness a-quiver | |
| Hungry and heartsick in a bounteous land. | |
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| “Beggars and bums?” Perhaps, and largely worthless. | 5 |
| Shaky with drink, unlovely, craven, low, | |
| With obscene tongues and hollow laughter mirthless; | |
| But who shall give them scorn for being so? | |
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| Yes, here they are—with gaunt and pallid faces, | |
| With limbs ill-clad and fingers stiff and blued, | 10 |
| Shuffling and stamping on their pavement places, | |
| Waiting and watching for their bit of food. | |
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| We boast of vast achievements and of power, | |
| Of human progress knowing no defeat, | |
| Of strange new marvels every day and hour— | 15 |
| And here’s the bread line in the wintry street! | |
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| Ten thousand years of war and peace and glory, | |
| Of hope and work and deeds and golden schemes, | |
| Of mighty voices raised in song and story, | |
| Of huge inventions and of splendid dreams; | 20 |
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| Ten thousand years replete with every wonder, | |
| Of empires risen and of empires dead; | |
| Yet still, while wasters roll in swollen plunder, | |
| These broken men must stand in line—for bread! | | | | |
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