Search for him; Search for him; Where the crazy atoms swim Up the fiery furnace-blast. You shall find him, at the last,-- He whose forehead braved the sun,-- Wreckt and tortured and undone. Where no breath across the heat Whispers him that life was sweet; But the sparkles mock and flare, Scattering up the crooked air. (Blackened with that bitter mirk,-- Would God know His handiwork?) Thought is not for such as he; Naught but strength, and misery; Since, for just the bite and sup, Life must needs be swallowed up. Only, reeling up the sky, Hurtling flames that hurry by, Gasp and flare, with _Why_--_Why_, ... _Why_?... Why the human mind of him Shrinks, and falters and is dim When he tries to make it out: What the torture is about.-- Why he breathes, a fugitive Whom the World forbids to live. Why he earned for his abode, Habitation of the toad! Why his fevered day by day Will not serve to drive away Horror that must always haunt:-- ... _Want_ ... _Want_! Nightmare shot with waking pangs;-- Tightening coil, and certain fangs, Close and closer, always nigh ... ... _Why_?... _Why_? Why he labors under ban That denies him for a man. Why his utmost drop of blood Buys for him no human good; Why his utmost urge of strength Only lets Them starve at length;-- Will not let him starve alone; He must watch, and see his own Fade and fail, and starve, and die. * * * * * ... _Why_?... _Why_? * * * * * Heart-beats, in a hammering song, Heavy as an ox may plod, Goaded--goaded--faint with wrong, Cry unto some ghost of God ... _How long_?... _How long_? .......... _How long_? III Seek him yet. Search for him! You shall find him, spent and grim; In the prisons, where we pen These unsightly shards of men. Sheltered fast; Housed at length; Clothed and fed, no matter how!-- Where the householders, aghast, Measure in his broken strength Nought but power for evil, now. Beast-of-burden drudgeries Could not earn him what was his: He who heard the world applaud Glories seized by force and fraud, He must break,--he must take!-- Both for hate and hunger's sake. He must seize by fraud and force; He must strike, without remorse! Seize he might; but never keep. Strike, his once!--Behold him here. (Human life we buy so cheap, Who should know we held it dear?) No denial,--no defence From a brain bereft of sense, Any more than penitence. But the heart-beats now, that plod Goaded--goaded--dumb with wrong, Ask not even a ghost of God ............._How long_? _When the Sea gives up its dead, Prison caverns, yield instead This, rejected and despised; This, the Soiled and Sacrificed! Without form or comeliness; Shamed for us that did transgress; Bruised, for our iniquities, With the stripes that are all his! Face that wreckage, you who can. It was once the Singing Man._ IV