Blackberries :: :: University of Virginia Library

Blackberries

by William Allingham

Allingham, William (1824-1889)

[epigraph]

[dedication]

[section]

[Here must I stay awhile, against my will]

[“Nation of Shopkeepers”—how base a name!]

[A whore that's gentle, mild, and sweet]

[Soldiers have fame, and harlots infamy]

[Hireling Soldier, Priest, and Woman]

[Many things flash across the town-bred mind]

[The Workers' Revolution must begin]

[Old folk, tho' weak, will serve you best: of late]

[Is idleness indeed so black a crime?]

[O the buzz and clack and clatter]

[The Century gallops, glorying itself]

[In the Great City, as 'twere Hell]

[One Cockney you despise; four million such]

[A bat-wing'd Cupid takes his flight]

[Stir and change from morn till night]

[section]

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[The Workers' Revolution must begin]

The Workers' Revolution must begin
(Else that were also vanity) within;
Grant honest life and honest work its aim.
Or do they merely envy whom they blame?