PARTISAN REVIEW
The world is not to bless or curse;
In
rain and wind, in sun and shade
Take it for better or for worse-
While we shall strike the blow that you evade.
4·
Drums of the world, beat!
New York
November
1931
beat a loud call for war against this madness!
Blue for a billion years, the sky
having seen at the world's dawn
man crawl up from slime,
still beholds the terror,
indolence, stupor, robbery, superstl tlon,
blood and lies from age to age;
bones of butchered men cracking in the fields,
diplomacy's crooked smile,
the oppression of peoples,
cries of the poor in all times and lands,
the hatred of parents and children
(boys and girl,;; twisted at life's gates
by the poison of unconfessed jealousy and revenge)
the struggle of nations, classes, factions, individuals;
hands that come empty into the world and leave empty.
Beat, drums of the world!
let the workers storm from the factories,
the peasants from the farms;
sweep the earth clean of this nightmare,
build new cities, a new world,
ringing with the clear voices of new men!
46
New York
193
1
JOSEPH FREEMAN
