OUR FATHERS ARE PRAYING FOR PAUPER PAY.
BY GERALD MASSEY.

Smitten stones will talk with fiery tongues,
And the worm, when trodden, will turn;
But, Cowards, ye cringe to the cruellest wrongs,
And answer with never a spurn.
Then torture, O Tyrants, the spiritless drove,
Old England’s Helots will bear;
There’s no hell in their hatred, no God in their love,
Nor shame in their dearth’s despair.
For our Fathers are praying for Pauper-pay,
Our Mothers with Death’s kiss are white;
Our Sons are the rich man’s Serfs by day,
And our Daughters his Slaves by night.
The Tearless are drunk with our tears; have they driven
The God of the poor man mad?
For we weary of waiting the help of Heaven,
And the battle goes still with the bad.
O but death for death, and life for life,
It were better to take and give,
With hand to throat, and knife to knife,
Than die out as thousands live!
For our Fathers are praying for Pauper-pay,
Our Mothers with Death’s kiss are white;
Our Sons are the rich man’s Serfs by day,
And our Daughters his Slaves by night.
Fearless and few were the heroes of old,
Who play’d the peerless part;
We are fifty-fold, but the grangrene Gold
Hath eaten out Hampden’s heart;
With their faces to danger, like free-men they fought,
With their daring, all heart and hand;
And the thunder-deed follow’d the lightning though,
When they stood for their own good land.
Our Fathers are praying for Pauper-pay,
Our Mothers with Death’s kiss are white;
Our Sons are the rich man’s Serfs by day,
And our Daughters his Slaves by night.
When the heart of one half of the world doth bear
Akin to the brave and the true,
And the tramp of Democracy’s earthquakes feet
Goes thrilling the wide world through,
We should not be living in darkness and dust,
And dying like slaves in the night,
But, big with the might of the inward “must,”
We should battle for Freedom and Right!
For our Fathers are praying for Pauper-pay,
Our Mothers with Death’s kiss are white;
Our Sons are the rich man’s Serfs by day,
And our Daughters his Slaves by night.

Title:Our Fathers Are Praying for Pauper Pay

Author:Gerald Massey

Publication:The Blackburn Times

Published in:Blackburn

Date:April 1, 1865

Keywords:gender, morality, politics, radical, slavery, song, work

Commentary

This radical poem by the former Chartist Gerald Massey is uncompromising in its representation of capitalist exploitation of the working classes. That a father has to beg for an absolute minimum wage is an example of the social humiliation heaped upon ordinary people by the modern industrial system. Particularly noteworthy is the stoking of righteous anger apparent in presenting the sons as serfs ‘by day’, and the daughters as slaves ‘by night’, suggesting sexual exploitation. The Cotton Famine was coming to an end when this poem was published in the Blackburn Times, but poverty was still widespread, and the scramble for work once the cotton returned would have been desperate. – SR