407. Inauguration Day Poem: The Call Of Brotherhood by Corinne Roosevelt Robinson

CR Robinson read by Classic Poetry Aloud: Giving voice to the poetry of the past. www.classicpoetryaloud.com -------------------------------------------- The Call Of Brotherhood by Corinne Roosevelt Robinson (1861 - 1933) Have you heard it, the dominant call Of the city’s great cry, and the thrall And the throb and the pulse of its Life, And the touch and the stir of its Strife, As, amid the dread dust and the din It wages its battle of Sin? Have you felt in the crowds of the street The echo of mutinous feet As they march to their final release, As they struggle and strive without peace? Marching how, marching where, and to what! Oh! by all that there is, or is not, We must march too and shoulder to shoulder. If a frail sister slip, we must hold her, If a brother be lost in the strain Of the infinite pitfalls of pain, We must love him and lift him again. For we are the Guarded, the Shielded, And yet we have wavered and yielded To the sins that we could not resist. By the right of the joys we have missed, By the right of the deeds left undone, By the right of our victories won, Perchance we their burdens may bear As brothers, with right to our share. The baby who pulls at the breast With its pitiful purpose to wrest The milk that has dried in the vein, That is sapped by life’s fever and drain The turbulent prisoners of toil, Whose faces are black with the soil And scarred with the sins of the soul, Who are paying the terrible toll Of the way they have chosen to tread, As they march on in truculent dread, And the Old, and the Weary, who fall Oh! let us be one with them all! By the infinite fear of our fears, By the passionate pain of our tears, Let us hold out our impotent hands, Made strong by Jehovah s commands, The God of the militant poor, Who are stronger than we to endure, Let us march in the front of the van Of the Brotherhood valiant of Man! First aired: 20 January 2009 For hundreds more poetry readings, visit the Classic Poetry Aloud index. Reading © Classic Poetry Aloud 2009