A thousand mill lofts gray
Means the rising of the race
Bread & roses, bread & roses
For they are women’s children
That a sudden sun discloses
A million darkened kitchens
No more the drudge and idler
We bring the greater days
Ten that toil where one reposes
For the people hear us singing
As we go marching, marching
As we go marching, marching
Are touched with all the radiance
We battle too for men
For the rising of the women
But the sharing of life’s glories
Our lives shall not be sweetened
Give us bread but give us roses
And we mother them again
Hearts starve as well as bodies
From birth until life closes
