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

On a Steamship

Sinclair, Upton

Upton Sinclair

ALL night, without the gates of slumber lying,

I listen to the joy of falling water,

And to the throbbing of an iron heart.

In ages past, men went upon the sea,

Waiting the pleasure of the chainless winds;

But now the course is laid, the billows part;

Mankind has spoken: “Let the ship go there!”

I am grown haggard and forlorn, from dreams

That haunt me, of the time that is to be,

When man shall cease from wantonness and strife,

And lay his law upon the course of things.

Then shall he live no more on sufferance,

An accident, the prey of powers blind;

The untamed giants of nature shall bow down—

The tides, the tempest and the lightning cease

From mockery and destruction, and be turned

Unto the making of the soul of man.