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

In the Strand

Symons, Arthur

Arthur Symons

(English poet and critic, 1865–1945)

WITH eyes and hands and voice convulsively

She craves the bestial wages. In her face

What now is left of woman? whose lost place

Is filled with greed’s last eating agony.

She lives to be rejected and abhorred,

Like a dread thing forgotten. One by one

She hails the passers, whispers blindly; none

Heeds now the voice that had not once implored

Those alms in vain. The hour has struck for her,

And now damnation is scarce possible

Here on the earth; it waits for her in hell.

God! to be spurned of the last wayfarer

That haunts a dark street after midnight! Now

Shame’s last disgrace is hot upon her brow.