90
PATRIOTIC PIECES
II
Forty years of preparation,
All at a tyrant's will,
For forty years, a nation
In one eternal drill;
His furnaces ablazing
With case of mighty guns,
Shipyards crammed with seacraft
And dreadnaughts, tons on tons;
Learn'd men concocting poison,
Devising gun and snare,
To ruin a friendly neighbor
And slay him unaware.
No enemy was moving,
No flag of war unfurled,
He plotted 'gainst a peaceful,
An unsuspecting world.
And yet for all his well-laid trains,
For all the fires he fanned,
For all the things he bought and sold.
And all the plots he planned:
He shall not pull it off, my boy,
He can not put it through,
He's up against a world in arms
Of fearless men and true.
