England arise, the long long night is over,
Faint in the east, behold the dawn appear,
Out of your evil dreams of toil and sorrow,
Arise oh England for the day is here.
Over your face a web of lies is woven,
Laws that are falsehoods bind you to the ground,
Labour is mocked, its just reward is stolen,
On its bent back sits idleness encrowned.
How long while you sleep, your harvest shall it reap?
Arise oh England for the day is here.
Forward ye heroes, patriots and lovers,
Comrades of danger, poverty and scorn,
Strong in the faith of England your great mother,
Giants refreshed in joy’s new rising morn.
Come and swell the throng, silent now so long.
England is risen and the day is here.
Edward Carpenter (1844-1929)
Edward Carpenter was an English socialist poet and early gay rights activist.
In his younger days, he was a Christian socialist and Church of England minister, but he later left the church, determined to dedicate his life to the working class.
Living in Sheffield, Carpenter became increasingly radical, joining first Hyndman’s Social Democratic Federation (SDF) and then the Socialist League, which he joined with William Morris. A utopian, rather than scientific, socialist, Carpenter rejected industrial society and envisioned a future of rural primitive communism as the cure for the ills of Victorian society.
