For Labor Day, two poems (Brecht, Piercy) about jobs that degrade. But the poems themselves offer solace.
Tag Archives: Labor Day
Celebrate Work? or Complain about It?
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Pirate Jenny's Song", "Secretary Chant", Bertolt Brecht, Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad, Kurt Weil, Marge Piercy, Threepenny Opera, Work Comments closed
A Blacksmith Poem for Labor Day
A Seamus Heaney blacksmith poem for Labor Day.
A Day of Rest for the Working Class
Labor Day In observance of Labor Day, here’s a poem by that bounciest of poets, Robert Service. Although it’s a bit of a caricature of the working man, I like the way he talks of rest. Labor Day, after all, celebrates the workers by giving them a special day off. And they don’t even have […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Song of the Wage Slave", Robert Service, workers, Working class Comments closed
A Poem for Labor Day
Monday – Labor Day I can think of few poems that better capture the spirit of Labor Day than Daniel Pinsky’s “The Shirt.” I love how it moves seamlessly—I use the adverb deliberately—between the craft of labor and the conditions of labor. Sometimes we see a lovingly described piece of clothing, sometimes we hear about […]
Langston Hughes on the Dignity of Work
Langston Hughes understood working men and women as well as anyone, as his poem “Brass Spittoons” demonstrates.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Brass Spittoons", analysis, Langston Hughes, Work Comments closed
“Find Work,” an Answer to Every Grief?
Rhina P. Espaillat captures the ambivalent nature of work in the poem posted for Labor Day. It can be ennobling but too much emphasis on it can rob us of our humanity.
Self Respect through Collective Action
Novelist Rachel Kranz shows workers finding a sense of self respect through union action.
