The Pilgrims of Hope | Page 6

and pinching want midst our quiet fields and green; But all was nothing to this, the London holiday throng. Dull and with hang-dog gait they stood or shuffled along, While the stench from the lairs they had lain in last night went up in the wind, And poisoned the sun-lit spring: no story men can find Is fit for the tale of their lives; no word that man hath made Can tell the hue of their faces, or their rags by filth o'er-laid: For this hath our age invented--these are the sons of the free, Who shall bear our name triumphant o'er every land and sea. Read ye their souls in their faces, and what shall help you there? Joyless, hopeless, shameless, angerless, set is their stare: This is the thing we have made, and what shall help us now, For the field hath been laboured and tilled and the teeth of the dragon shall grow.
But why are they gathered together? what is this crowd in the street? This is a holiday morning, though here and there we meet The hurrying tradesman's broadcloth, or the workman's basket of tools. Men say that at last we are rending the snares of knaves and fools; That a cry from the heart of the nation against the foe is hurled, And the flag of an ancient people to the battle-breeze unfurled. The soldiers are off to the war, we are here to see the sight, And all our griefs shall be hidden by the thought of our country's might. 'Tis the ordered anger of England and her hope for the good of the Earth That we to-day are speeding, and many a gift of worth Shall follow the brand and the bullet, and our wrath shall be no curse, But a blessing of life to the helpless--unless we are liars and worse - And these that we see are the senders; these are they that speed The dread and the blessing of England to help the world at its need.
Sick unto death was my hope, and I turned and looked on my dear, And beheld her frightened wonder, and her grief without a tear, And knew how her thought was mine--when, hark! o'er the hubbub and noise, Faint and a long way off, the music's measured voice, And the crowd was swaying and swaying, and somehow, I knew not why, A dream came into my heart of deliverance drawing anigh. Then with roll and thunder of drums grew the music louder and loud, And the whole street tumbled and surged, and cleft was the holiday crowd, Till two walls of faces and rags lined either side of the way. Then clamour of shouts rose upward, as bright and glittering gay Came the voiceful brass of the band, and my heart beat fast and fast, For the river of steel came on, and the wrath of England passed Through the want and the woe of the town, and strange and wild was my thought, And my clenched hands wandered about as though a weapon they sought.
Hubbub and din was behind them, and the shuffling haggard throng, Wandering aimless about, tangled the street for long; But the shouts and the rhythmic noise we still heard far away, And my dream was become a picture of the deeds of another day. Far and far was I borne, away o'er the years to come, And again was the ordered march, and the thunder of the drum, And the bickering points of steel, and the horses shifting about 'Neath the flashing swords of the captains--then the silence after the shout - Sun and wind in the street, familiar things made clear, Made strange by the breathless waiting for the deeds that are drawing anear. For woe had grown into will, and wrath was bared of its sheath, And stark in the streets of London stood the crop of the dragon's teeth. Where then in my dream were the poor and the wall of faces wan? Here and here by my side, shoulder to shoulder of man, Hope in the simple folk, hope in the hearts of the wise, For the happy life to follow, or death and the ending of lies, Hope is awake in the faces angerless now no more, Till the new peace dawn on the world, the fruit of the people's war.
War in the world abroad a thousand leagues away, While custom's wheel goes round and day devoureth day. Peace at home!--what peace, while the rich man's mill is strife, And the poor is the grist that he grindeth, and life devoureth life?

MOTHER AND SON

Now sleeps the land of houses, and dead night holds the street, And there thou liest, my baby, and sleepest soft and sweet; My man is away for awhile, but safe