Upton Sinclair, ed. (1878–1968). rn The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest. 1915.

To a Bourgeois Litterateur
(Who referred to a group of agitators as “Professional Hoboes”)

Eastman, Max

Max Eastman

(Editor of “The Masses,” 1883–1969)

HOW old, my friend, is that fine-pointed pen

Wherewith in smiling quietude you trace

The maiden maxims of your writing-place,

And o’er this gripped and mortal-sweating den

And battle-pit of hunger, now and then

Dip out, with nice and intellectual grace,

The faultless wisdoms of a nurtured race

Of pale-eyed, pink, and perfect gentlemen?

How long have art and wit and poetry,

With all their power, been content, like you,

To gild the smiling fineness of the few,

To filmy-curtain what they dare not see

In multudinous reality—

The rough and bloody soul of what is true?