Tolpuddle Martyrs
Mollie Davidson
(Coventry)
The Tolpuddle Martyrs
worked in a field, with
wives and children
on nothing, men
on even less.
A common background with grass and trees and rain,
a life deprived
of pride and dignity, wage and work.
A secret friendship of hard men,
who altogether caused some other men to feel quite scared.
Altogether they came, not one at a time,
to try to talk again
they tried.
In the docks but not earning
it was sad to see,
men courageous and as hardworking as these.
Australia is a long way away,
away from home and love
and grass and trees and rain.
Away from the smell of change
and the clinking of machines,
madness and a hysteria of a new age
and rain.
Australia is very different to Tolpuddle