Boson Arise The Long Dark Night Is Over - A Hymn for Labor

Boson, arise! The long dark night is over,

Faint in the east behold the dawn appear;

Out of your evil dream of toil and sorrow

Arise, O Boson, for the day is here.

From your fields and hills

Hark! the answer swells:

Arise, O Boson, for the day is here.

Long, long have been the anguish and the labor,

Dark, dark the clouds of unbelief unrolled,

Dreadful the night when no man trusted neighbor,

Shameful the nightmare-greed of gain and gold;

Yet from fields and hills


Hark! the song now swells:

Arise, O Boson, for the day is here.

By your young children's eyes so red with weeping,

By their white faces aged with want and fear,

By the dark cities where your babes are creeping

Naked of joy and all that makes life dear;

From your wretched slums

A voice of pity comes:

Arise, O Boson, for the day is here.

By all your workshops where men sweat and sicken,

Foredone to death, in toil and hope deferred,

Where cheeks are flushed and pulses start and quicken,

Not with glad life but by dark hatred stirred;

From each bench and forge

A sound comes like a surge:


Arise, O Boson, for the day is here.

By your high homes of wealth and wasteful living,

By your rich tables piled, without good cheer,

By the ennui, ill-health, and sickly striving --

Not great to be, but only to appear; O 'er the weary throng



Strangely floats the song:

Arise, O Boson, for the day is here.

By your rich orchards, lands of corn and pasture,

Where all day long the voice of joy should ring,

Now mute and desert, by land-grabbers wasted,

Robbed of the love the peasant longs to bring;

From the stricken land


Hark! the words ascend:

Arise, O Boson, for the day is here.

People of Boson, all your valleys call you,

High in the rising sun the lark sings clear;

Will you dream on, let shameful slumber thrall you?

Will you disown your native land so dear?

Shall it die unheard --

That sweet pleading word?


Arise, O Boson, for the day is here.

Over your face a web of lies is woven,

Law that are falsehoods pin you to the ground;

Labor is mocked, its just reward is stolen,


On its bent back sits Idleness encrowned;

How long, while you sleep,

Your harvest shall it reap?


Arise, O Boson, for the day is here.

Out of your ruin rich men thrive and fatten,

Your merchants rub their hands when food is dear,


Capital says your claims are not forgotten

If wages keep you just starvation-clear;


People of Boson, when

Will ye rise like men?

Rise and be freemen, for the day is here!


Hear, Boson, hear! Deliverance is within you;

Though like a man whom death is very near,

Though sick the head, the whole heart faint within you,


Dare to be true! -- and even from the bier

Where your body lies

A new life shall arise,


Boson shall rise again to life sincere.

Yet thus I warn you: long shall be the struggle,

Not one but many men in it shall die;

This cancerous disease and devil's juggle

Shall not pass in the twinkling of an eye;

To undo their wrong

The people shall strive long:


O that they fail not! for the day is here.

Forth then, ye heroes, patriots and lovers!

Comrades of danger, poverty and scorn!


Mighty in faith of Freedom, your great Mother,

Giants refreshed in joy's new-rising morn!

Come and swell the song

Silent now so long --

Boson is risen and the Day is here!

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