The Red Flower | Page 6

dearest country of my heart, home of the high desire,?Make clean thy soul for sacrifice on Freedom's altar-fire;?For thou must suffer, thou must fight, until the war-lords cease, And all the peoples lift their heads in liberty and peace.
London Times, April 12, 1917.
THE OXFORD THRUSHES
FEBRUARY, 1917
I never thought again to hear?The Oxford thrushes singing clear,?Amid the February rain,?Their sweet, indomitable strain.
A wintry vapor lightly spreads?Among the trees, and round the beds?Where daffodil and jonquil sleep,?Only the snowdrop wakes to weep.
It is not springtime yet. Alas,?What dark, tempestuous days must pass,?Till England's trial by battle cease,?And summer comes again with peace.
The lofty halls, the tranquil towers,?Where Learning in untroubled hours?Held her high court, serene in fame,?Are lovely still, yet not the same.
The novices in fluttering gown?No longer fill the ancient town,?But fighting men in khaki drest--?And in the Schools the wounded rest.
Ah, far away, 'neath stranger skies?Full many a son of Oxford lies,?And whispers from his warrior grave,?"I died to keep the faith you gave."
The mother mourns, but does not fail,?Her courage and her love prevail?O'er sorrow, and her spirit hears?The promise of triumphant years.
Then sing, ye thrushes, in the rain?Your sweet, indomitable strain.?Ye bring a word from God on high?And voices in our hearts reply.
HOMEWARD BOUND
Home, for my heart still calls me;?Home, through the danger zone;?Home, whatever befalls me,?I will sail again to my own!
Wolves of the sea are hiding?Closely along the way,?Under the water biding?Their moment to rend and slay.
Black is the eagle that brands them,?Black are their hearts as the night,?Black is the hate that sends them?To murder but not to fight.
Flower of the German Culture,?Boast of the Kaiser's Marine,?Choose for your emblem the vulture,?Cowardly, cruel, obscene!
Forth from her sheltered haven?Our peaceful ship glides slow,?Noiseless in flight as a raven,?Gray as a hoodie crow.
She doubles and turns in her bearing,?Like a twisting plover she goes;?The way of her westward faring?Only the captain knows.
In a lonely bay concealing?She lingers for days, and slips?At dusk from her covert, stealing?Thro' channels feared by the ships.
Brave are the men, and steady,?Who guide her over the deep,--?British mariners, ready?To face the sea-wolf's leap.
Lord of the winds and waters,?Bring our ship to her mark,?Safe from this game of hide-and-seek?With murderers in the dark!
On the S.S. Baltic, May, 1917.
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