The Lancashire Operatives’ Appeal. By William Eaton.
Pray help us, we are starving;
None can our sufferings tell,
God only knows the anguish
That in our hearts doth dwell.
Pray help us, we are starving;
And cannot work obtain;
To go about a begging
Runs sore against the grain.
Pray help us, we are starving;
This we could bear alone,
But wives and children clemming
Would rend a heart of stone.
Pray help us, we are starving;
Our chattels one by one
We’ve had to sell to buy us food,
And now the last is gone.
Pray help us, we are starving;
Bare boards are our best beds,
And thankful are, if we on straw
Can rest our weary heads.
Pray help us, we are starving;
Home drives us to despair;
No cheerful voices greet us
When we now enter there.
Pray help us, we are starving;
To our country we apply,
She promptly must support us,
Or we shall droop and die.
Pray help us, we are starving;
Pray help us in our need;
Pray help us now and freely
And God will bless the deed.
Horwich, Nov., 1862.
Title:The Lancashire Operatives' Appeal
Author:William Eaton
Publication:The Blackburn Standard
Published in:Blackburn
Date:Wednesday, November 26, 1862
Keywords:charity, domesticity, poverty, religion
Commentary
The repeated refrain “Pray help us, we are starving” adds a note of pathos for this appeal for charity by William Eaton. It draws on similar themes to many other Cotton Famine poems – the unwillingness to rely on charity or poor relief, and the pawning or selling of belongings to avoid it, and the imagery of home and family detailing the emotional wrench of poverty. – RM.