The Years Between | Page 7

Fate's discourtesy
Whereby it is made clear,

How in all
time of our distress,
And in our triumph too,
The game is more than
the player of the game,
And the ship is more than the crew!
THE OUTLAWS
1914
Through learned and laborious years
They set themselves to find


Fresh terrors and undreamed-of fears
To heap upon mankind.
All that they drew from Heaven above
Or digged from earth beneath,

They laid into their treasure-trove
And arsenals of death:
While, for well-weighed advantage sake,
Ruler and ruled alike
Built
up the faith they meant to break
When the fit hour should strike.
They traded with the careless earth,
And good return it gave;
They
plotted by their neighbour's hearth
The means to make him slave.
When all was ready to their hand
They loosed their hidden sword,

And utterly laid waste a land
Their oath was pledged to guard.
Coldly they went about to raise
To life and make more dread

Abominations of old days,
That men believed were dead.
They paid the price to reach their goal
Across a world in flame;
But
their own hate slew their own soul
Before that victory came.
ZION
The Doorkeepers of Zion,
They do not always stand
In helmet and
whole armour,
With halberds in their hand,
But, being sure of Zion,

And all her mysteries,
They rest awhile in Zion,
Sit down and
smile in Zion;
Ay, even jest in Zion;
In Zion, at their ease.
The Gatekeepers of Baal,
They dare not sit or lean,
But fume and
fret and posture
And foam and curse between;
For being bound to
Baal,
Whose sacrifice is vain.
Their rest is scant with Baal,
They
glare and pant for Baal,
They mouth and rant for Baal,
For Baal in
their pain!
But we will go to Zion,
By choice and not through dread,
With
these our present comrades

And those our present dead;
And, being

free of Zion
In both her fellowships,
Sit down and sup in Zion--

Stand up and drink in Zion
Whatever cup in Zion
Is offered to our
lips!
LORD ROBERTS
1914
He passed in the very battle-smoke
Of the war that he had descried.

Three hundred mile of cannon spoke
When the Master-Gunner died.
He passed to the very sound of the guns;
But, before his eye grew
dim,
He had seen the faces of the sons
Whose sires had served with
him.
He had touched their sword-hilts and greeted each
With the old sure
word of praise;
And there was virtue in touch and speech
As it had
been in old days.
So he dismissed them and took his rest,
And the steadfast spirit went
forth
Between the adoring East and West
And the tireless guns of
the North.
Clean, simple, valiant, well-beloved,
Flawless in faith and fame,

Whom neither ease nor honours moved
An hair's-breadth from his
aim.
Never again the war-wise face,
The weighed and urgent word
That
pleaded in the market-place--
Pleaded and was not heard!
Yet from his life a new life springs
Through all the hosts to come,

And Glory is the least of things
That follow this man home.
THE QUESTION
1916

Brethren, how shall it fare with me
When the war is laid aside,
If it
be proven that I am he
For whom a world has died?
If it be proven that all my good,
And the greater good I will make,

Were purchased me by a multitude
Who suffered for my sake?
That I was delivered by mere mankind
Vowed to one sacrifice,
And
not, as I hold them, battle-blind,
But dying with open eyes?
That they did not ask me to draw the sword
When they stood to
endure their lot--
That they only looked to me for a word,
And I
answered I knew them not?
If it be found, when the battle clears,
Their death has set me free,

Then how shall I live with myself through the years
Which they have
bought for me?
Brethren, how must it fare with me,
Or how am I justified,
If it be
proven that I am he
For whom mankind has died,
If it be proven
that I am he
Who being questioned denied?
THE CHOICE
1917
(THE AMERICAN SPIRIT SPEAKS)
_To the Judge of Right and Wrong
With Whom fulfilment lies
Our
purpose and our power belong,
Our faith and sacrifice._
Let Freedom's Land rejoice!
Our ancient bonds are riven;
Once
more to us the eternal choice
Of Good or Ill is given.
Not at a little cost,
Hardly by prayer or tears,
Shall we recover the
road we lost
In the drugged and doubting years.

But, after the fires and the wrath,
But, after searching and pain,
His
Mercy opens us a path
To live with ourselves again.
In the Gates of Death rejoice!
We see and hold the good--
Bear
witness, Earth, we have made our choice
With Freedom's
brotherhood!
Then praise the Lord Most High
Whose Strength hath saved us whole,

Who bade us choose that the Flesh should die
And not the living
Soul!
_To the God in Man displayed--
Where e'er we see that Birth,
Be
love and understanding paid
As never yet on earth!_
_To the Spirit that moves in Man,
On Whom all worlds depend,
Be
Glory since our world began
And service to the end!_
THE HOLY WAR
1917
('For here lay the excellent wisdom of him that built Mansoul that the
walls could never be broken down