These stirring lines are taken from Arturo Giovannitti's "Arrows in the
Gale" and are a part of the poem "The Sermon on the Common." Note the
use of the conjunctions. Mark all of the clauses.
Ye are the power of the earth, the foundations of society, the
thinkers and the doers of all things good and all things fair and
useful, the makers and dispensers of all the bounties and the joys and
the happiness of the world, and if ye fold your mighty arms, all the
life of the world stands still and death hovers on the darkened abodes
of man.
Ye are the light of the world. There was darkness in all the ages when
the torch of your will did not blaze forth, and the past and the
future are full of the radiance that cometh from your eyes.
Ye are eternal, even as your father, labor, is eternal, and no power
of time and dissolution can prevail against you.
Ages have come and gone, kingdoms and powers and dynasties have risen
and fallen, old glories and ancient wisdoms have been turned into
dust, heroes and sages have been forgotten and many a mighty and
fearsome god has been hurled into the lightless chasms of oblivion.
But ye, Plebs, Populace, People, Rabble, Mob, Proletariat, live and
abide forever.
Therefore I say unto you, banish fear from your hearts, dispel the
mists of ignorance from your minds, arm your yearning with your
strength, your vision with your will, and open your eyes and behold.
Do not moan, do not submit, do not kneel, do not pray, do not wait.
Think, dare, do, rebel, fight--ARISE!
It is not true that ye are condemned to serve and to suffer in shame
forever.
It is not true that injustice, iniquity, hunger, misery, abjection,
depravity, hatred, theft, murder and fratricide are eternal.
There is no destiny that the will of man cannot break.
There are no chains of iron that other iron cannot destroy.
There is nothing that the power of your arms, lighted by the power of
your mind, cannot transform and reconstruct and remake.
Arise, then, ye men of the plow and the hammer, the helm and the
lever, and send forth to the four winds of the earth your new
proclamation of freedom which shall be the last and shall abide
forevermore.
Through you, through your united, almighty strength, order shall
become equity, law shall become liberty, duty shall become love and
religion shall become truth.
Through you, the man-beast shall die and the man be born.
Through you, the dark and bloody chronicles of the brute shall cease
and the story of man shall begin.
Through you, by the power of your brain and hand,
All the predictions of the prophets,
All the wisdom of the sages,
All the dreams of the poets,
All the hopes of the heroes,
All the visions of the martyrs,
All the prayers of the saints,
All the crushed, tortured, strangled, maimed and murdered ideals of
the ages, and all the glorious destinies of mankind shall become a
triumphant and everlasting reality in the name of labor and bread and
love, the great threefold truth forever.
And lo and behold, my brothers, this shall be called the revolution.