Charlotte Perkins Gilman's In This Our World and Uncollected Poems

“The Poor Ye Have Always With You"

138 | Uncollected and Other Poems In the name of the hungry left unfed, Or the sick and in prison unvisited, Listen to what the Lord hath said! His Heaven is not reached by sin, The meek and the poor its crown may win, But the rich shall hardly enter in! Pray, thou rich man! Pray again! To the Lord of poverty and pain; Pray and do—his Word is plain! (San Francisco Wasp, 21 November 1891, 2) “The Poor Ye Have Always With You”14 The poor ye have always with you—therefore why See to improve a lot ordained of God— Dare to rebel beneath his chastening rod— Question the law on high? The poor ye have always with you—plain to see Is this thing so far—stated by our Lord, Proved the fact and also by his Word— So it must surely be. Yet wait—“have always” is the present tense He said they had them always, and they had, Must we therefore believe a thing so bad Shall always crush us with its weight immense? “You always have the headache!” I complain— ’Tis not prediction that you always will, Nor yet a lasting curse to say, worse still, That you must always bear that pain. The poor we had had with us in full store From senseless age to age. Let man to-day Rise up and put this human shame away— Let us have poor no more! (Boston New Nation, 4 June 1892, 356) To Mothers In the name of your ages of anguish! In the name of the curse and the stain! By the strength of your sorrow I call you! By the power of your pain! We are Mothers. Through us in our bondage, Through us with the brand in the face— ...