Page:Armistice Day.djvu/49

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DRAW THE SWORD, O REPUBLIC
27

And for peoples everywhere
Crying in bondage,
And in poverty!


You have been a leaven in the earth, O Republic!
And a watch-fire on the hill-top scattering sparks;
And an eagle clanging his wings on a cloud-wrapped promontory:
Now the leaven must be stirred,
And the brands themselves carried and touched
To the jungles and the black forests.
Now the eaglets are grown, they are calling,
They are crying to each other from the peaks—
They are flapping their passionate wings in the sunlight,
Eager for battle!
As a strong man nurses his youth
To the day of trial;
But as a strong man nurses it no more
On the day of trial,
But exults and cries, "For Victory, O Strength!
And for the glory of my City, O treasured youth!"
You shall neither save your youth,
Nor hoard your strength
Beyond this hour, O Republic!


For you have sworn
By the passion of the Gaul,
And the strength of the Teuton,