Thursday, March 15, 2007

The Chartist Poets

Lost voices of Victorian working class uncovered in political protest poems

How comes it that ye toil and sweat
And bear the oppressor's rod
For cruel man who dare to change
The equal laws of God?
How come that man with tyrant heart
Is caused to rule another,
To rob, oppress and, leech-like, suck
The life's blood of a brother?


These men and women toiled in factories and wrote poetry in an attempt to bring about social justice.

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