Voice Of The Voiceless

Adaptation of "Kingship" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850–1919)

So many gods, so many creeds,

So many paths that wind and wind,

While just the art of being kind

Is all the sad world needs

I am the voice of the voiceless

Through me, their hearts shall speak

Till the deaf world’s ear be made to hear

The cry of the wordless weak

From lab, from cage

And from forests,

From slaughterhouse stalls

Comes the wail

Of my tortured kin.

They proclaim the sin

Of the mighty against the frail.

For love is the true religion,

And love is the law sublime;

And all that is wrought, where love is not

Will die at the touch of time.

Oh, shame on the mothers of mortals

Who have not stopped to teach

Of the sorrow that lies in an animal’s eyes,

The sorrow that has no speech.

The same Power formed the sparrow

That fashioned man – the King;

The God of the whole gave a living soul

To furred and to feathered thing.

And I am my brother’s keeper,

And I will fight his fight;

And speak the word for beast and bird

Till the world shall set things right.

Oh, shame on the mothers of mortals

Who have not stopped to teach

Of the sorrow that lies in an animal’s eyes,

The sorrow that has no speech.