free-verse21 lines
Tyranny. (Melbourne.)
by Francis William Lauderdale Adams[The Delegates speak.]
"'Tyranny'? Yes, that's it!
We are not afraid
To face the word that's fit
For what we've said!
"It's the tyranny of the Many,
That will not allow
There's the right to any
To seek wealth and power now
"At the expense of the Many.
Say, that one or this
Works 'over hours': then he
Drives us all to the abyss,
"Where, struggling together
One rises again
While the rest all together
Are stifled and slain.
"From this death-strife of brothers
Comes the tyranny of One.
That's your sort. But we others,
We prefer our own!"