Poor Heart, so weary with thy bitter grief! So thou art dead at last, silent and chill! The longed-for death-dart came to thy relief, And there thou liest, Heart, forever still. Dead eyes, pain-presse...

O’er the sweet, quiet homes in the silent grave-city, Softly the dewdrops, the night-tears, fall; Broadly about, like the wide arms of pity, The silver-shot darkness lies over all. Heroes, asleep ’nea...

We contrast light and darkness⁠—light of God, And darkness from the Stygian shades of hell; Fumes of the pit infernal rising up Have clouded o’er the brain, laid reason low;⁠— For when the eye looks o...

Grand eye of Liberty, light up my page! Like promised morning after night of age Thy dawning youth breaks in the distant east! Thy cloudy robes like silken curtains creased And swung in folds are floa...

Some souls there are which never live their life; Some suns there are which never pierce their cloud; Some hearts there are which cup their perfume in, And yield no incense to the outer air. Cloud-shr...

So, you’re the chaplain! You needn’t say what you have come for; I can guess. You’ve come to talk about Jesus’ love, and repentance and rest and forgiveness! You’ve come to say that my sin is great, y...

There’s a love supreme in the great hereafter, The buds of earth are blooms in heaven; The smiles of the world are ripples of laughter When back to its Aidenn the soul is given: And the tears of the w...

Quiet they lie in their shrouds of rest, Their lids kissed close ’neath the lips of peace; Over each pulseless and painless breast The hands lie folded and softly pressed, As a dead dove presses a bro...

The tide is out, the wind blows off the shore; Bare burn the white sands in the scorching sun; The sea complains, but its great voice is low. Bitter thy woes, O People, And the burden Hardly to be bor...

How many drops must gather to the skies Before the cloud-burst comes, we may not know; How hot the fires in under hells must glow Ere the volcano’s scalding lavas rise, Can none say; but all wot the h...

Come! Come! I have waited long! My love is old, My arms are strong; My heart is bold; I would woo thee, now, With the wave-kiss cold On thy pallid brow; Thou art mine, thou art mine! My very own! Thin...

Why do you clothe me with scarlet of shame? Why do you point with your finger of scorn? What is the crime that you hissingly name When you sneer in my ears, “Thou bastard born?” Am I not as the rest o...

I am! The ages on the ages roll; And what I am, I was, and I shall be: By slow growth filling higher Destiny, And widening, ever, to the widening Goal. I am the Stone that slept; down deep in me That ...

A Soul, half through the Gate, said unto Life: “What dost thou offer me?” And Life replied: “Sorrow, unceasing struggle, disappointment; after these Darkness and silence.” The Soul said unto Death: “W...

I am at peace⁠—no storm can ever touch me; On my clear heights the sunshine only falls; Far, far below glides the phantom voice of sorrows, In peace-lifted light the Silence only calls. Ah, Soul, asce...

You and I, in the sere, brown weather, When clouds hang thick in the frowning sky, When rain-tears drip on the bloomless heather, Unheeding the storm-blasts will walk together, And look to each other⁠...

We have cried⁠—and the Gods are silent; We have trusted⁠—and been betrayed; We have loved⁠—and the fruit was ashes; We have given⁠—the gift was weighed. We know that the heavens are empty, That friend...

I stand in the darkness waiting For the light of the truth to shine; The faith that you preach has failed me, And your God is no longer mine. I have lifted my hands to heaven, And besought him, with m...

Great silent heart! These barren drops of grief Are not for you, attained unto your rest; This sterile salt upon the withered leaf Of love, is mine⁠—mine the dark burial guest. Far, far within that de...

Who am I? Only one of the commonest common people, Only a worked-out body, a shriveled and withered soul, What right have I to sing then? None; and I do not, I cannot. Why ruin the rhythm and rhyme of...

The dust of a hundred years Is on thy breast, And thy day and thy night of tears Are centurine rest. Thou to whom joy was dumb, Life a broken rhyme, Lo, thy smiling time is come, And our weeping time....

What have you done, O skies, That the millions should kneel to you? Why should they lift wet eyes, Grateful with human dew? Why should they clasp their hands, And bow at thy shrines, O heaven, Thankin...

There was a tableau! Liberty’s clear light Shone never on a braver scene than that. Here was a prison, there a Man who sat High in the Halls of state! Beyond, the might Of ignorance and Mobs, whose hi...

The gods have left us, the creeds have crumbled; There are none to pity and none to care: Our fellows have crushed us where we have stumbled; They have made of our bodies a bleeding stair. Loud rang t...

Back to thy breast, O Mother, turns thy child, He whom thou garmentedst in steel of truth, And sent forth, strong in the glad heart of youth, To sing the wakening song in ears beguiled By tyrants’ pro...

Pale, ghostly Vision from the coffined years, Planting the cross with thy world-wandering feet, Stern Watcher through the centuries’ storm and beat, In those sad eyes, between those grooves of tears⁠—...

A moan in the gloam in the air-peaks heard⁠— The Bird of Omen⁠—the wild, fierce Bird, Aflight In the night, Like a whizz of light, Arrowy winging before the storm, Far away flinging, The whistling, si...

To say in my defense? Defense of what? Defense to whom? And why defense at all? Have I wronged any? Let that one accuse! Some priest there mutters I “have outraged God”! Let God then try me, and let n...

Chipmunks three sat on a tree, And they were as green as green could be; They cracked nuts early, they cracked nuts late, And chirruped and chirruped, and ate and ate; “ ’Tis a pity of chipmunks witho...

Germinal!⁠—The Field of Mars is plowing, And hard the steel that cuts, and hot the breath Of the great Oxen, straining flanks and bowing Beneath his goad, who guides the share of Death. Germinal!⁠—The...

Light upon Waldheim! And the earth is gray; A bitter wind is driving from the north; The stone is cold, and strange cold whispers say: “What do ye here with Death? Go forth! Go forth!” Is this thy wor...

I went before God, and he said, “What fruit of the life I gave?” “Father,” I said, “it is dead, And nothing grows on the grave.” Wroth was the Lord and stern: “Hadst thou not to answer me? Shall the f...

Santa Agueda, thou that wast accursed With presence of a demon dressed in Man, Blessed art thou, for on thy stones there ran The vampire blood from bitter torture nursed; Along thy streets there flash...

I saw them toiling in the blistering sun, Their dull, dark faces leaning toward the stone, Their knotted fingers grasping the rude tools, Their rounded shoulders narrowing in their chest, The sweat dr...

We are the souls that crept and cried in the days when they tortured men; His was the spirit that walked erect, and met the beast in its den. Ours are the eyes that were dim with tears for the thing t...

Comrades, what matter the watch-night tells That a New Year comes or goes? What to us are the crashing bells That clang out the Century’s close? What to us is the gala dress? The whirl of the dancing ...

Requiem, requiem, requiem, Blood-red blossom of poison stem Broken for Man, Swamp-sunk leafage and dungeon bloom, Seeded bearer of royal doom, What now is the ban? What to thee is the island grave? Wi...

Written in red their protest stands, For the Gods of the World to see; On the dooming wall their bodiless hands Have blazoned “Upharsin,” and flaring brands Illumine the message: “Seize the lands! Ope...

Since the death of the author this poem has been put to music by the young American composer, George Edwards. ↩ Voltairine de Cleyre’s last poem. ↩...