Scum o' the Earth. [Robert Haven Schauffler]

I

At the gate of the West I stand, On the isle where the nations throng.

We call them "scum o' the earth";

Stay, are we doing you wrong, Young fellow from Socrates' land? -- You, like a Hermes so lissome and strong Fresh from the Master Praxiteles' hand? So you're of Spartan birth? Descended, perhaps, from one of the band -- Deathless in story and song -- Who combed their long hair at Thermopylae's pass? Ah, I forget the straits, alas! More tragic than theirs, more compassion-worth, That have doomed you to march in our "immigrant class" Where you're nothing but "scum o' the earth".

II

You Pole with the child on your knee, What dower bring you to the land of the free? Hark! does she croon That sad little tune That Chopin once found on his Polish lea And mounted in gold for you and for me? Now a ragged young fiddler answers In wild Czech melody That Dvorak took whole from the dancers. And the heavy faces bloom In the wonderful Slavic way; The little, dull eyes, the brows a-gloom, Suddenly dawn like the day. While, watching these folk and their mystery, I forget that they're nothing worth; That Bohemians, Slovaks, Croatians, And men of all Slavic nations Are "polacks" -- and "scum o' the earth".

III

Genoese boy of the level brow, Lad of the lustrous, dreamy eyes A- stare at Manhattan's pinnacles now In the first sweet shock of a hushed

surprise; Within your far-rapt seer's eyes I catch the glow of the wild surmise That played on the Santa Maria's prow In that still gray dawn, Four centuries gone, When a world from the wave began to rise. Oh, it's hard to foretell what high emprise Is the goal that gleams When Italy's dreams Spread wing and sweep into the skies. Caesar dreamed him a world ruled well; Dante dreamed Heaven out of Hell; Angelo brought us there to dwell; And you, are you of a different birth? -- You're only a "dago", -- and "scum o' the earth"!

IV

Stay, are we doing you wrong Calling you "scum o' the earth", Man of the sorrow-bowed head, Of the features tender yet strong, -- Man of the eyes full of wisdom and mystery Mingled with patience and dread? Have not I known you in history, Sorrow-bowed head? Were you the poet-king, worth Treasures of Ophir unpriced? Were you the prophet, perchance, whose art Foretold how the rabble would mock That shepherd of spirits, erelong, Who should carry the lambs on his heart And tenderly feed his flock? Man -- lift that sorrow-bowed head. Lo! 't is the face of the Christ!

The vision dies at its birth. You're merely a butt for our mirth. You're a "sheeny" -- and therefore despised And rejected as "scum o' the earth".

V

Countrymen, bend and invoke Mercy for us blasphemers, For that we spat on these marvelous folk, Nations of darers and dreamers, Scions of singers and seers, Our peers, and more than our peers. "Rabble and refuse", we name them And "scum o' the earth", to shame them. Mercy for us of the few, young years, Of the culture so callow and crude, Of the hands so grasping and rude, The lips so ready for sneers At the sons of our ancient more-than-peers. Mercy for us who dare despise Men in whose loins our Homer lies; Mothers of men who shall bring to us The glory of Titian, the grandeur of Huss; Children in whose frail arms shall rest Prophets and singers and saints of the West.

Newcomers all from the eastern seas, Help us incarnate dreams like these. Forget, and forgive, that we did you wrong. Help us to father a nation, strong In the comradeship of an equal birth, In the wealth of the richest bloods of earth.