The Man With The Hoe by Edwin Markham; need help with this poem. (EXPLANATION like context clues etc.)?

Question

The Man with the Hoe by Edwin Markham

O "masters, lords and rulers" in all lands,
Is this the "handiwork" you give to God,
This monstrous thing distorted and soul-quenched?
How will you ever straighten up this shape;
Touch it again with immortality;
Give back the upward looking and the "light";
Rebuild in it the "music" and the "dream";
Make right the immemorial infamies,
Perfidious wrongs, immedicable woes?

O masters, lords and rulers in all lands,
How will the future reckon with this Man?
How answer his brute question in that hour
When "whirlwinds of rebellion" shake all shores?
How will it be with kingdoms and with kings--
With those who shaped him to the thing he is--
When this "dumb Terror" shall rise to judge the world,
After the "silence of the centuries"?

can someone please explain the words/phrases in side the " " .
please help me know what those words phrases mean or the meaning behind it. its like context clues

whole poem:
http://www.wagner.edu/library/manhoe

Answer 1

masters, lords, and rulers is pretty simple - they are they people in power, those who do no work, unlike hose wit' hoes. their handiwork is the broken men that work beneath them, the farmers who till their soil. it's back breaking labour. light, music, and dream(s) are the things these farmers (or oppressed workers of any type) do not have, because they are forced, by the rulers, to work until they're misshapen by their efforts. whirlwinds of rebellion are the stormy times when the workers revolt against their overlords, refusing to work and wreaking revenge. the dumb terror refers to the workers, as well, who have had no say in their fates, until the revolution (dumb, in this sense, means unable to speak). the silence of centuries is the silence that existed before people started speaking out against oppressive work conditions. i hope this helps, but i'm pretty sure it won't.