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1874–1942

Sonnet

Alice Duer Miller

Let us not to an unrestricted day Impediments admit. Work is not work To our employés, but a merry play; They do not ask the law's excuse to shirk.

Ah, no, the canning season is at hand, When summer scents are on the air distilled, When golden fruits are ripening in the land, And silvery tins are gaping to be filled.

Now to the cannery with jocund mien Before the dawn come women, girls and boys, Whose weekly hours ( a hundred and nineteen ) Seem all too short for their industrious joys.

If this be error and be proved, alas The Thompson-Bewley bills may fail to pass!

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Sonnet · Alice Duer Miller · Poetry Cove