Equality of Birth.

EQUALITY OF BIRTH.

THE poorest man that walks on earth,
Is he not, too, my brother?
And have we not a common birth,
The earth, our common mother?

Away! then, with all caste and pride
Of family or nation,
And gladly take him at your side,
Joint heir of God’s creation.

What boots it if the world we gain,
And lose all else beside?
The Briton, Saxon, or the Dane,
Cannot be saved by pride.

Of but one blood our God hath made
The nations of the earth;
How weak our pride, then, to parade,
Of wealth, or power, or birth!

Better to go where poor men go,
And lie where poor men lie,
Than waste our days in mimic show,
And basely thus to die.

Then reach me forth thy honest hand,
Thou man of common clay:
I claim thee for the chosen band
Who hail the rising day!

The day when God’s great jubilee
Shall echo far and wide,
And all the nations shall be free
From tyranny and pride.