Oliver S. Crocco

A weekly poem

The Poetry of Work

Public-domain poems on work, craft, and vocation. A quiet pause in the working day.

People have long turned to poetry to make sense of their working lives, the hard parts and the good. This is a small weekly gathering of those poems, drawn entirely from the public domain: voices from across the centuries on labor and craft, the sea and the land, vocation and rest.

Work keeps changing, and quickly. Sitting for a moment with how earlier generations wrote about it is one way to keep the human part of it close. Each week brings one poem, paired with a public-domain photograph, posted across Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

The project is curated by Oliver S. Crocco, a professor of leadership and human resource development, with care taken to get the sources and the public-domain status right.

This week

Paul Laurence Dunbar, “We Wear the Mask”

Paul Laurence Dunbar, We Wear the Mask, card 1 of 3Paul Laurence Dunbar, We Wear the Mask, card 2 of 3Paul Laurence Dunbar, We Wear the Mask, card 3 of 3

Sources

Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872 to 1906), "We Wear the Mask" (1895). Public domain. Source: Academy of American Poets (Poets.org).

Photograph: portrait of a young man, from W. E. B. Du Bois's American Negro exhibit at the 1900 Paris Exposition. Library of Congress. Public domain.

Archive

Past poems

  • Thomas Hood, “The Song of the Shirt”
    Thomas Hood, The Song of the Shirt, card 1 of 3Thomas Hood, The Song of the Shirt, card 2 of 3Thomas Hood, The Song of the Shirt, card 3 of 3

    Thomas Hood (1799 to 1845), "The Song of the Shirt" (1843). Public domain. Source: Project Gutenberg, The Poetical Works of Thomas Hood (ebook 15652).

    Photograph: Lewis Hine, garment workers, Upper East Side, New York, c. 1912. National Child Labor Committee, Library of Congress. Public domain.

  • Sarojini Naidu, “Coromandel Fishers”
    Sarojini Naidu, Coromandel Fishers, card 1 of 5Sarojini Naidu, Coromandel Fishers, card 2 of 5Sarojini Naidu, Coromandel Fishers, card 3 of 5Sarojini Naidu, Coromandel Fishers, card 4 of 5Sarojini Naidu, Coromandel Fishers, card 5 of 5

    Sarojini Naidu (1879 to 1949), "Coromandel Fishers" (1905). Public domain. Source: Project Gutenberg, "The Golden Threshold" by Sarojini Naidu (eBook #680), plain-text edition; cross-checked against Wikisource.

    Photograph: harbour at Svolvær, Nordland, Norway, c. 1900. Public domain.

  • William Wordsworth, “The Solitary Reaper”
    William Wordsworth, The Solitary Reaper, card 1 of 3William Wordsworth, The Solitary Reaper, card 2 of 3William Wordsworth, The Solitary Reaper, card 3 of 3

    William Wordsworth (1770 to 1850), "The Solitary Reaper" (1807). Public domain. Source: Wikisource: Poems, in Two Volumes (Wordsworth, 1807), Volume 2, "The solitary Reaper" (first-publication text).

    Photograph: Dorothea Lange, field worker, San Joaquin Valley, California, 1938. FSA, Library of Congress. Public domain.

  • Walt Whitman, “Song of the Broad-Axe”
    Walt Whitman, Song of the Broad-Axe, card 1 of 5Walt Whitman, Song of the Broad-Axe, card 2 of 5Walt Whitman, Song of the Broad-Axe, card 3 of 5Walt Whitman, Song of the Broad-Axe, card 4 of 5Walt Whitman, Song of the Broad-Axe, card 5 of 5

    Walt Whitman (1819 to 1892), "Song of the Broad-Axe" (1856). Public domain. Source: Project Gutenberg, Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman (eBook #1322).

    Photograph: a ship-carpenter's workshop, Altonaer Museum, Hamburg. Christoph Braun (CC0).

  • Kahlil Gibran, “On Work”
    Kahlil Gibran, On Work, card 1 of 4Kahlil Gibran, On Work, card 2 of 4Kahlil Gibran, On Work, card 3 of 4Kahlil Gibran, On Work, card 4 of 4

    Kahlil Gibran (1883 to 1931), "On Work" (1923). Public domain. Source: Project Gutenberg (The Prophet, eBook #58585, Kahlil Gibran).

    Photograph: a woman at a spinning wheel, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway, early 1900s. Fylkesarkivet i Sogn og Fjordane. Public domain.

Follow along

A new poem each week. Follow wherever you keep your quiet corners of the day.