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

Caliban in the Coal Mines
(From “Challenge”)

Untermeyer, Louis

Louis Untermeyer

(American poet, born 1885)

GOD, we don’t like to complain—

We know that the mine is no lark—

But—there’s the pools from the rain;

But—there’s the cold and the dark.

God, You don’t know what it is—

You, in Your well-lighted sky,

Watching the meteors whizz;

Warm, with the sun always by.

God, if You had but the moon

Stuck in Your cap for a lamp,

Even You’d tire of it soon,

Down in the dark and the damp.

Nothing but blackness above,

And nothing that moves but the cars—

God, if You wish for our love,

Fling us a handful of stars!