"If you only knew
How gladly I've given it
All these years--
The light of mine eyes,
The heat of my lips,
Mine agonies,
My yearning tears,
My blood that drips,
My brain that sears:
If you only knew
How gladly I've given it
All these years--
My hope and my youth,
My manhood, my Art,
My passion, my truth,
My mind and my heart:
"O my brother, you would not say,
What have you to do with me?
You would not, would not turn away
Doubtingly and bitterly.
"If you only knew
How little I cared for
These other things--
The delicate speech,
The high demand
Of each from each,
The imaginings
Of Love's Holy Land:
If you only knew
How little I cared for
These other things--
The wide clear view
Over peoples and times,
The search in the new
Entrancing climes,
Science's wings
And Art's sweet chimes:
"O my brother, if you only knew
What to me in these things is understood,
As it seems to me it would seem to you,
What was good for the Cause was surely good:
"O my brother, you would not say:
What have you to do with me?
You would not, would not turn away
Doubtingly and bitterly:
"But you would take my hand with your hand,
O my brother, if you only knew;
You would smile at me, you would understand,
You would call me brother as I call you!"
TO MY FRIEND SYDNEY JEPHCOTT,
WITH A COPY OF MY "POETICAL WORKS."
"Take with all my heart, friend, this,
The labour of my past,
Though the heart here hidden is
And the soul's eternities
Hold the present fast.
"Take it, still, with soul and heart,
Pledge of that dear day
When the shadows stir and start,
By the bright Sun burst apart--
_Young Australia_!"
TO E. L. ZOX. {89}
(_Melbourne_.)
We thank you for a noble work well done.
There is a kindness--('tis the truer one;
The better part the simpler heart doth know),
The care to give the day a brighter sun
To these, the nameless crowd that drags on slow
The common toil, the common weary woe
The world cares nought for. But _your_ work secures
Thro' union strength and self-respect that grow.
There is a courage that unflawed endures
The sneer, the slander of earth's epicures.
And here are grateful women's hearts to show
This kindness and this courage, both are yours!
"FATHER ABE."
(_Song of the American Sons of Labour_.)