Showing posts with label Claude McKay. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Claude McKay. Show all posts

Saturday 7 May 2022

Good Reading: "The Beast" by Claude McKay (in English)

The statesmen-hirelings its favour seek.
   And the world's news is under its control;
Great are the powers of the mighty clique
   That owns the slaving peoples, body and soul.
Down in its shops and offices and streets
   The toilers struggle, sullen, underpaid,
And pinch-faced poverty proud Plutus meets,
   And pimps and harlots ply their wretched trade.
And in its gorgeous halls where gold holds sway
   ​The smirking mother offers her young daughter
To haughty men for whom all women are play
   Or babes, or ornaments, or sheep for slaughter:
Its system makes men parasites or brutes
   And tends to make all women prostitutes.