Mother of Men

Mother of Men A setting of Ida Crouch Hazlett’s poem “Mother of Men” recounts the various struggles endured by women throughout our history while hoping for a better future in the “glory of years to be.”
 
Listen to and view a perusal score of "Mother of Men"
 
Instrumentation:
SATB Choir
Violin I
Violin II
Viola
Cello
Percussion: Bongos, suspended Tamborine, sizzle cymbal
 
Mother of Men
By Ida Crouch Hazlett (1918)
Edited by Mary Simmons Walsh
 
She has mothered her child in the jungles wild, 
Through many a long gone age; 
She has mourned her dead by the sunset red, 
Where the storms of battle rage.
She has borne the burdens of every clime, 
And borne its men as well. 
And is this the reply to her human cry: 
Down, down to the harlot’s hell?
 
She has lighted the fire on every hearth; 
She fashioned the vessels rude; 
She turned the earth in its first gray birth, 
And gave to the nations food.
And is this the reply to her mothering cry:
Down, down to the factory hell?
 
They chained her like beasts to labor’s wheel; 
They snatched her babes from her quivering breast, 
By court and law and page.
But she comes as the moon walks over the sea—
In the glory of years to be; 
To bless the race with her joyous face,
And woman shall yet be free.