Opening the text

The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest: The writings of philosophers, poets, novelists, social reformers, and others who have voiced the struggle against social injustice; selected from twenty-five languages; covering a period of five thousand years

General

The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest: The writings of philosophers, poets, novelists, social reformers, and others who have voiced the struggle against social injustice; selected from twenty-five languages; covering a period of five thousand years

Social justice; Social problems

So soon as Mammon there arrived, the dore
      To him did open and affoorded way:
    Him followed eke Sir Guyon evermore,
      Ne darknesse him ne daunger might dismay.
      Soone as he entred was, the dore streightway
    Did shutt, and from behind it forth there lept
      An ugly feend, more fowle then dismall day:
    The which with monstrous stalke behind him stept,
    And ever as he went dew watch upon him kept.

    Well hopèd hee, ere long that hardy guest,
      If ever covetous hand, or lustfull eye,
    Or lips he layd on thing that likte him best,
      Or ever sleepe his eie-strings did untye,
      Should be his pray: and therefore still on hye
    He over him did hold his cruell clawes,
      Threatning with greedy gripe to doe him dye,
    And rend in peeces with his ravenous pawes,
    If ever he transgrest the fatall Stygian lawes.

    In all that rowme was nothing to be seene
      But huge great yron chests, and coffers strong,
    All bard with double bends, that none could weene
      Them to efforce by violence or wrong;
      On every side they placèd were along.
    But all the grownd with sculs was scattered
      And dead mens bones, which round about were flong;
    Whose lives, it seemed, whilome there was shed,
    And their vile carcases now left unburièd.


Mammon Marriage

BY GEORGE MACDONALD

(Scotch novelist and clergyman, 1824-1905)

    The croak of a raven hoar!
      A dog's howl, kennel-tied!
    Loud shuts the carriage-door:
      The two are away on their ghastly ride
    To Death's salt shore!

    Where are the love and the grace?
      The bridegroom is thirsty and cold!
    The bride's skull sharpens her face!
      But the coachman is driving, jubilant, bold,
    The devil's pace.

    The horses shiver'd and shook
      Waiting gaunt and haggard
    With sorry and evil look;
      But swift as a drunken wind they stagger'd
    'Longst Lethe brook.

    Long since, they ran no more;
      Heavily pulling they died
    On the sand of the hopeless shore
      Where never swell'd or sank a tide,
    And the salt burns sore.

    Flat their skeletons lie,
      White shadows on shining sand;
    The crusted reins go high
      To the crumbling coachman's bony hand
    On his knees awry.

    Side by side, jarring no more,
      Day and night side by side,
    Each by a doorless door,
      Motionless sit the bridegroom and bride
    On the Dead-Sea-shore.


Snobs and Marriage

(_From "The Book of Snobs"_)

BY WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY

(English novelist and satirist of manners, 1811-1863)

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

General

The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest: The writings of philosophers, poets, novelists, social reformers, and others who have voiced the struggle against social injustice; selected from twenty-five languages; covering a period of five thousand years

Social justice; Social problems

So soon as Mammon there arrived, the dore
      To him did open and affoorded way:
    Him followed eke Sir Guyon evermore,
      Ne darknesse him ne daunger might dismay.
      Soone as he entred was, the dore streightway
    Did shutt, and from behind it forth there lept
      An ugly feend, more fowle then dismall day:
    The which with monstrous stalke behind him stept,
    And ever as he went dew watch upon him kept.

    Well hopèd hee, ere long that hardy guest,
      If ever covetous hand, or lustfull eye,
    Or lips he layd on thing that likte him best,
      Or ever sleepe his eie-strings did untye,
      Should be his pray: and therefore still on hye
    He over him did hold his cruell clawes,
      Threatning with greedy gripe to doe him dye,
    And rend in peeces with his ravenous pawes,
    If ever he transgrest the fatall Stygian lawes.

    In all that rowme was nothing to be seene
      But huge great yron chests, and coffers strong,
    All bard with double bends, that none could weene
      Them to efforce by violence or wrong;
      On every side they placèd were along.
    But all the grownd with sculs was scattered
      And dead mens bones, which round about were flong;
    Whose lives, it seemed, whilome there was shed,
    And their vile carcases now left unburièd.


Mammon Marriage

BY GEORGE MACDONALD

(Scotch novelist and clergyman, 1824-1905)

    The croak of a raven hoar!
      A dog's howl, kennel-tied!
    Loud shuts the carriage-door:
      The two are away on their ghastly ride
    To Death's salt shore!

    Where are the love and the grace?
      The bridegroom is thirsty and cold!
    The bride's skull sharpens her face!
      But the coachman is driving, jubilant, bold,
    The devil's pace.

    The horses shiver'd and shook
      Waiting gaunt and haggard
    With sorry and evil look;
      But swift as a drunken wind they stagger'd
    'Longst Lethe brook.

    Long since, they ran no more;
      Heavily pulling they died
    On the sand of the hopeless shore
      Where never swell'd or sank a tide,
    And the salt burns sore.

    Flat their skeletons lie,
      White shadows on shining sand;
    The crusted reins go high
      To the crumbling coachman's bony hand
    On his knees awry.

    Side by side, jarring no more,
      Day and night side by side,
    Each by a doorless door,
      Motionless sit the bridegroom and bride
    On the Dead-Sea-shore.


Snobs and Marriage

(_From "The Book of Snobs"_)

BY WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY

(English novelist and satirist of manners, 1811-1863)

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest: The writings of philosophers, poets, novelists, social reformers, and others who have voiced the struggle against social injustice; selected from twenty-five languages; covering a period of five thousand years

The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest: The writings of philosophers, poets, novelists, social reformers, and others who have voiced the struggle against social injustice; selected from twenty-five languages; covering a period of five thousand years

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