Original artwork, not a still
Who first invented work, and bound the free
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
The opening question continues into a complaint that work has bound a free, holiday-loving spirit to drudgery at a desk. Its force is a rhetorical protest against confinement by labour, not an inquiry that identifies the historical inventor of work.
Sources (1)
- Bartlett, Familiar Quotations (1891)Charles Lamb, WorkReference checked
Context reviewed
