Poems (Dudley)/Labor and Capital

by Marion Vienna Churchill Dudley

LABOR AND CAPITAL.

AND here at home, too, Toil complains
 Of weary hours and meager gains,
Of scanty raiment, food and fire
 And naught that fill the soul's desire
For higher nurture; books and ease,
 To think and roam the farther seas;
A weary riddle this to read,—
 No sphynx e'er held a closer creed,—
Is Gold the king and Labor slave?
 Or Labor wronged and Gold the knave?
Nay, ask it thus: shall Head command
 Or bow itself to rule of Hand?
In truth, can neither reign alone
 But both may share and fill a throne.