Songs of Love and Rebellion/The World Will
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THE WORLD WILL
Hear me, ye who sit in purple splendor, 'round old Mammon's throne!
Hear me, all ye sons of Moloch, ye who make the race to mourn!
Hear me, too, ye pand'ring statesmen guarding where their black flag waves!
Hear me, all ye hireling teachers, all ye priesthoods who have sold
Truth, the Holy Spirit, and have turned Love's glowing words to gold!
Hear me, all ye House of Mammon, all who bend at Moloch's shrine,
We, the workers, soon are coming in a fury all divine!
Heart-aflame and by love driven, nation-parted now no more
We are gath'ring for the battle that the seers foretold of yore;
From all peoples we are coming, far and wide the world around,
And the fight shall not be ended 'till the last slave's freedom's found;
There shall be, when we have finished, for all children home and hearth,
And the songs of happy mothers shall be heard throughout the earth;
There shall be no fallen women, there shall be no broken men,
There shall be no homeless outcasts on the broad earth's bosom then.
All the steel that now surrounds you, naked-handed we shall break;
All the laws that now protect you, these as nothing we shall make;
All the words of your false prophets unto you shall be as dust,
And the spider seal the temples where your stricken idols rust;
All your gilded, glitt'ring savagery our hands shall sweep away,
And the maidens ye have ruined shall demand of you their pay;
All your monstrous art shall perish from the earth's insulted plain,
All your reeking hovel cities shall ge back to hell again!
There shall be no king above us, there shall be no slave below,
There, in Labor's grand Republic, only freedom we shall know!
We are gathering, we are coming, far and wide the world around,
Truth the northstar of our legions, all the earth our battle ground!
Arming, coming in love-anger, marching forward by its light,
Coming, coming hungry-hearted for the long expected fight!
Coming, coming from our thralldom, coming victors over all!—
We have heard the World Will speaking, we have heard the Race-Soul call!