The Honest Working Man
The Honest Working Man
Original Text
Marie Joussaye, The Songs that Quinte Sang
(Belleville: Sun, 1895): 68-69. Internet Archive
1As through the world we take our way
2 How oftentimes we hear
3The praises sung of wealthy men,
4 Of prince, and duke and peer.
5The poets tell us of their fame,
6 They are lauded o'er the land,
7But you very seldom hear them sing
8 Of the honest working man.
9They praise the wealthy banker,
10 The purse-proud millionaire;
11Their pockets have golden lining,
12 So they're praised from everywhere.
13Let others sing the praises
14 Of those darlings of the land,
15But mine shall be a nobler theme--
16 The honest working man.
17Let monarchs prize their glittering crowns
18 And all their royal host,
19Let lordlings brag of their blue blood--
20 They have nothing else to boast.
21But what is all their rank, compared
22 To our hero, true and grand,
23One of fair Nature's noblemen--
24 The honest working man.
25His hands may be both rough and hard,
26 His clothes and speech be plain,
27But you will find his manly heart
28 Without a spot or stain.
29And there are some whose clothes are fine.
30 Whose hands are soft and white,
31But the secret records of their lives
32 Could never bear the light.
33May Heaven's choicest blessings fall
34 Upon that hero's head,
35Who bravely toils throughout each day
36 To earn his loved ones bread.
37You'll find no monarch who can show
38 A record half so grand.
39God bless great labor's true-born knight--
40 The honest working man.
41So now of Fortune's favored ones,
42 Henceforth let less be said,
43And more be spoken of the man
44 Who toils for daily bread.
45God bless each hardy son of toil
46 That labors in the land.
47Let us give three cheers with right good will
48 For the honest working man.
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2011
Rhyme
Form