You'll find an excellent summary of the poem at the link pasted below.
Markham was inspired to write this poem by Jean-Francois Millet's painting L'homme a la houe (Man with a Hoe). I've included a link to the Getty Museum web page, where you can see that painting. If you'll read the poem while looking at the painting, you might get a better understanding of what Markham was trying to say.
In the first four stanzas, Markham describes the man and speculates what made him look so gaunt and despairing. In the final stanza, he leaves a warning for the mighty and powerful who oppress such people as this man:
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?
What will happen when this man (and all like him) finally erupts in anger and frustration and rebels?
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