| I am come of the seed of the people, the people that sorrow; | 
| Who have no treasure but hope | 
| No riches laid up but a memory of an ancient glory | 
| My mother bore me in bondage, in bondage my mother was born | 
| I am of the blood of serfs; | 
| The children with whom I have played, the men and women with whom I have eaten | 
| Have had masters over them, have been under the lash of masters | 
| And though gentle, have served churls | 
| The hands that have touched mine | 
| The dear hands whose touch Is familiar to me | 
| Have worn shameful manacles, have been bitten at the wrist by manacles | 
| Have grown hard with the manacles and the task-work of strangers | 
| I am flesh of the flesh of these lowly, I am bone of their bone I that have | 
| never submitted; | 
| I that have a soul greater than the souls of my people’s masters | 
| I that have vision and prophecy, and the gift of fiery speech | 
| I that have spoken with God on the top of his holy hill | 
| And because I am of the people, I understand the people | 
| I am sorrowful with their sorrow, I am hungry with their desire; | 
| My heart is heavy with the grief of mothers | 
| My eyes have been wet with the tears of children | 
| I have yearned with old wistful men | 
| And laughed and cursed with young men; | 
| Their shame is my shame, and I have reddened for it | 
| Reddened for that they have served, they who should be free | 
| Reddened for that they have gone in want, while others have been full | 
| Reddened for that they have walked in fear of lawyers and their jailors | 
| With their Writs of Summons and their handcuffs | 
| Men mean and cruel | 
| I could have borne stripes on my body | 
| Rather than this shame of my people | 
| And now I speak, being full of vision: | 
| I speak to my people, and I speak in my people’s name to | 
| The masters of my people: | 
| I say to my people that they are holy | 
| That they are august despite their chains | 
| That they are greater than those that hold them | 
| And stronger and purer | 
| That they have but need of courage, and to call on the name of their God | 
| God the unforgetting, the dear God who loves the people | 
| For whom he died naked, suffering shame | 
| And I say to my people’s masters: Beware | 
| Beware of the thing that is coming, beware of the risen people | 
| Who shall take what ye would not give | 
| Did ye think to conquer the people, or that law is stronger than life | 
| And than men’s desire to be free? | 
| We will try it out with you ye that have harried and held | 
| Ye that have bullied and bribed | 
| Tyrants… hypocrites… liars! |