Francis William Lauderdale Adams - In An East End Hovel lyrics

To a Workman, a would-be Suicide MAN of despair and d**h, Bought and slaved in the gangs, Starved and stripped and left To the pitiful, pitiless night, Away with your selfish thoughts! Touch not your ignorant life! Are there no masters of slaves, Jeering, cynical, strong — Are there no brigands (say), With the words of Christ on their lips, And the daggers under their cloaks — Is there not one of these That you can steal on and k**? O as the Swiss mountaineer Dogged on the perilous heights His disciplined conqueror foes: Caught up one in his arms And, laughing exultantly, Plunged with him to the abyss: So let it be with you! An eye for an eye, and a tooth For a tooth, and a life for a life! Tell it, this hateful strong Contemptuous, hypocrite World, Tell it that, if we must live As dogs and as worse than dogs, At least we can die like men! Tell it there is a woe Not for the conquered alone! An eye for an eye, and a tooth For a tooth, and a life for a life.