Page:Fifes and Drums, Poems of America at War, Vigilantes, 1917.djvu/56

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50
FIFES AND DRUMS


Having found the holier duty, found the true, the final beauty,
As their brothers of the South and of the East.
In the forests of the West they have given of their best,
With strong hands and patient for the binding of the Beast.

For his treason unto man in the War that he began,
For the rapine and the flame, for the hissing of his name,
Have the hosts gone up against him and with swords of judgment fenced him,
With his coward clutch on woman and on priest.
For the children he has maimed, for the maidens he has shamed,
The nations gird their harness for the binding of the Beast.