Wherefore weave with Toil & Care
The rich robes your Tyrants wear?²
They who voluntarily put power into
The hands of a Tyrant, must not wonder
If it is at last turned Against themselves.³
Where has he acquired enough Eyes to spy upon you,
If you do not provide them Yourselves?
How can he have so many Arms to beat you with,
If he does not borrow them from You?
The Feet that trample down your Cities,
Where does he get them if they are not Your Own?⁴
If you are silent about your Pain, they’ll
Kill you and say you Enjoyed it.⁵
The Apathy of the people is enough to
Make every statue leap from its pedestal,
And to hasten the resurrection of the dead!⁶
Freedom will not come today, this year
Nor ever through Compromise and Fear.⁷
Not with hope will the price be obtained—
The world must be taken through Struggle.⁸
We have Squandered our resistance—
For a pocketful of Mumbles.⁹
We hang our head—ostensibly—
And subsequent we find—
That such is not the posture
Of an Immortal Mind—¹⁰
¹ Gil Scott-Heron, The Revolution Will Not be Televised
² Percy Bysshe Shelley, Song to the Men of England
³ James’s Aesop, The Kite and the Pigeons
⁴ Étienne De La Boétie, Discourse on Voluntary Servitude
⁵ Zora Neale Hurston
⁶ William Lloyd Garrison, To the People
⁷ Langston Hughes, Freedom
⁸ Umm Kulthum, Egypt Speaks of Herself
⁹ Simon and Garfunkel, The Boxer
¹⁰ Emily Dickinson, To Hang Our Head