THE PRISON POEMS OF RALPH CHAPLIN
With an introduction By Scott Nearing
1922
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
MOURN NOT THE DEAD
TAPS
NIGHT IN THE CELL HOUSE
PRISON SHADOWS
PRISON REVEILLE
PRISON NOCTURNE
THE WARRIOR WIND
TO FREEDOM
THE VISION MAKER
DISTANCES
PHANTOMS
SEVEN LITTLE SPARROWS
SALAAM!
THE WEST IS DEAD
UP FROM YOUR KNEES!
THE EUNUCH
I. W. W. PRISON SONG
TO FRANCE
VILLANELLE
WESLEY EVEREST
THE INDUSTRIAL HERETICS
BLOOD AND WINE
THE RED GUARD
THE RED FEAST
THE GIRLS WHO SANG FOR US
TO EDITH
SONG OF SEPARATION
TO MY LITTLE SON
ESCAPED!
RETROSPECT
I.
Ralph Chaplin is serving a twenty year sentence in the FederalPenitentiary, not as a punishment for any act of violence againstperson or property, but solely for the expression of his opinions.
Chaplin, together with a number of fellow prisoners who were sentencedat the same time, was accused of taking part in a conspiracy withintent to obstruct the prosecution of the war. To be sure theGovernment did not produce a single witness to show that the war hadbeen obstructed by their activities; but it was argued that theagitation which they had carried on by means of speeches, articles,pamphlets, meetings and organizing campaigns, would quite naturallyhamper the country in its war work. On the face of their indictmentsthese men were accused of interfering with the conduct of the war; inreality they were sent to jail because they held and expressed certainbeliefs.
As a member of the Industrial Workers of the World, Ralph Chaplin didhis part to make the organization a success. He wrote songs andpoems; he made speeches: he edited the official paper, "Solidarity".He looked about him; saw poverty, wretchedness and suffering among theworkers; contrasted it with the luxury of those who owned the land andthe machinery of production; studied the problem of distribution; anddecided that it was possible, through the organization of theproducers, to establish a more scientific, juster, more humane systemof society. All this he felt, intensely. With him and hisfellow-workers the task of freeing humanity from economic bondage tookon the aspect of a faith, a religion. They held their meetings; wrotetheir literature; m