In the name of your ages to anguish!
In the name of the curse and the stain!
By the strength of your sorrow I call you
By the power of your pain!

We are mothers. Through us in our bondage,
Through us with a brand in the face,
Be we fettered with gold or with iron,
Through us comes the race

With the weight of all sin on our shoulders,
Midst the serpents of shame ever curled,
We have sat, unresisting, defenseless, —
Making the men of the world!

We were ignorant long, and our children
Were besotted and brutish and blind,
King-driven, priest-ridden — who are they
Our children — mankind.

We were kept for our beauty, our softness,
Our sex, — what reward do ye find?
We transmit, must transmit, being mothers,
What we are to mankind!

As the mother so follow the children!
No nation, wise, noble and brave,
Ever sprang, — though the father had freedom, —
From the mother, — a slave

Look now at the world as ye find it!
Blench not! Truth is kinder than lies!
Look now at the world — see it suffer!
Listen now to its cries!

See the people who suffer, all people!
All humanity wasting its powers!
In a hand to hand struggle — death dealing —
All children of ours!

The blind millionaire — the blind harlot —
The blind preacher leading the blind —
Only think of the pain, how it hurts them!
Our little blind babies — mankind!

Shall we bear it? We mothers who love them
Can we bear it? We mothers who feel
Every pang of our babes and forgive them
Every sin when they kneel?

Little stumbling world! You have fallen!
You are crying in darkness and fear!
Wait, darling, your mother is coming!
Hush, darling, your mother is here!

We are here like an army with banners
The great flag of our freedom unfurled!
With us rests the fate of the nations,
For we make the world!

Dare ye sleep while your children are calling?
Dare ye wait while they clamor unfed?
Dare ye pray in the proud pillared churches
While they suffer for bread?

If the farmer hath sinned he shall answer,
If he check thee laugh back at his powers!
Shall a mother be kept from her children?
These people are ours!

They are ours! He is ours, for we made him!
In our arms he has nestled and smiled!
Shall we, the world-mothers, be hindered
By the freaks of a child?

Rise now in the power of The Woman!
Rise now in the power of our need!
The world cries in hunger and darkness!
We shall light! We shall feed!

In the name of our ages of anguish!
In the name of the curse and the slain!
By the strength of our sorrow we conquer!
In the power of our pain!