David Edelstadt Poems

Hated are we, and driven from our homes,
Tortured and persecuted, even to blood;
And wherefore? 'Tis because we love the poor,
The masses of mankind, who starve for food.
...

Good friends, when I am dead, bear to my grave
Our banner, freedom's flag of crimson hue,
Stained with the blood poured from the toilers' veins.
There 'neath the crimson banner sing to me
My song, 'At Strife,' the song of liberty,
That in the hearer's ear clangs like the chains
Of the enslaved, Christian alike and Jew.
...