R. Howard Spring
We who, unheeding, watched the little pools
Of rippling light that underlay the trees,
And saw the clear young arrows shoot the gloom
Of chambers darkly curtain'd with no surprise,
Kneel to the regal miracle which lends
To death the august mystery life forbade.
And now upon these fields are gathered up
In one great blood-red rose of sacrifice
All unremembered buds of love and faith
That shy young lives erst offered Freedom's crowns
And to this fierce consuming altar fire,
That speaks a God-ward world in tongues of flame,
Each spark of heart's devotion lends its strength,
Each candle-point of truth its warmth and light.
The Bells
[In Germany church bells are being melted down for war purposes.]
The Bells:
WHAT have we done
That sacrilegious hands should tear us down
From the high belfry above the little town,
Whence now for fifty years to King and clown
We speak of life and death? What have we done?
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