Said Willie to Tom, ‘Let us hie awayTo the wonderful Island of Endless Play. It lies off the border of “No School Land,”And abounds with pleasure, I understand. There boys go swimming whenever they pleaseIn a lovely river right under the trees. And marbles are free, so you need not buy;And kites of all sizes […]

If one poor burdened toiler o’er life’s road,Who meets us by the way,Goes on less conscious of his galling load,Then life indeed, does pay. If we can show one troubled heart the gain,That lies alway in loss,Why then, we too, are paid for all the painOf bearing life’s hard cross. If some despondent soul to […]

Seeking for happiness we must go slowly;The road leads not down avenues of haste;But often gently winds through by ways lowly,Whose hidden pleasures are serene and chasteSeeking for happiness we must take heedOf simple joys that are not found in speed. Eager for noon-time’s large effulgent splendour,Too oft we miss the beauty of the dawn,Which […]

We are the Allies of God to-day,And the width of the earth is our right of way.Let no man question or ask us why,As we speed to answer a wild world cry;Let no man hinder or ask us where,As out over water and land we fare;For whether we hurry, or whether we wait,We follow the […]

The modern English-speaking young girl is the astonishment of the world and the despair of the older generation. Nothing like her has ever been seen or heard before. Alike in drawing-rooms and the amusement places of the people, she defies conventions in dress, speech, and conduct. She is bold, yet not immoral. She is immodest, […]

They rode through the bannered city –The King and the Commoner,And the hopes of the world were with them,And the heart of the world was astir.For the moss-grown walls seemed fallingThat have shut away men from Kings;And Deep unto Deep was callingFor the coming of greater things. They rode to an age-old PalaceWhere the feet […]

He was a failure, and one day he died.Across the border of the mapless landHe found himself among a sad-eyed bandOf disappointed souls; they, too, had triedAnd missed their purpose. With one voice they criedUnto the shining Angel in command:‘Oh, lead us not before our Lord to stand,For we are failures, failures! Let us hide.’ […]

Mother, sit down, for I have much to sayAnent this widespread ever-growing themeOf woman and her virtues and her rights. I left you for the large, loud world of men,When I had lived one little score of years.I judged all women by you, and my heartWas filled with high esteem and reverenceFor your angelic sex; […]

‘Invisible and silent’–MysterySurrounded that great Guardian of the Sea.That Father–Mother–of the mighty main.While loud in valley and on field and hill –And over anguished plainThe battles thundered. God himself is stillAnd hidden from men’s view; and it were meetThat this subliminal forceShould move in utter silence on its courseInvisible–Inaudible–till that hourWhen Time, Fate’s Minister, should […]

Lie down, and let the billows hide your shame,Oh, shorn and naked outcast of the seas!You who confided to each ocean breezeYour coming conquests, and made loud acclaimOf your own grandeur and exalted fame;You who have catered to they world’s disease;You who have drunk hate’s wine, and found the lees;Lie down! and let all men […]

There was a time when I was confidentThat God’s stupendous mystery of birthWas mine to know. The wonder of it lentNew ecstasy and glory to the earth.I heard no voice that uttered it aloud,Nor was it written for me on a scroll;Yet, if alone or in the common crowd,I felt myself a consecrated soul.My child […]

Many the songs of the brave boys sentOver The Top in the battle’s thunder;But mine is the song of the men who wentOver the top of the waves–and under. Men of the sea, Men of the sea,I lift mine eyes to the Flags unfurled –The Flags of Victory blowing freeOver the new-born world.And I cry […]

I had seen our splendid soldiers in their khaki uniforms,And their leaders with a Sam Brown belt;I had seen the fighting Britons and Colonials in swarms,I had seen the blue-clad Frenchmen, and I feltThat the mighty martial showHad no new sight to bestow,Till I walked on Piccadilly, and my word!By the bonnie Highland laddiesIn their […]

What will the superwoman be, of whom we sing –She who is coming over the dim borderOf Far To-morrow, after earth’s disorderIs tidied up by Time? What will she bringTo make life better on tempestuous earth?How will her worthBe greater than her forbears? What new powerWithin her being will burst into flower? She will bring […]

All that a man can say of woman’s charms,Mine eyes have spoken and my lips have toldTo you a thousand times. Your perfect arms(A replica from that lost Melos mould),The fair firm crescents of your bosom (shownWith full intent to make their splendours known), Your eyes (that mask with innocence their smile),The (artful) artlessness of […]

Not Atlas, with his shoulders bent beneath the weighty world,Bore such a burden as this man, on whom the Gods have hurledThe evils of old festering lands–yea, hurled them in their mightAnd left him standing all alone, to set the wrong things right. It is the way the Fates have done since first Time’s race […]

From the Queen Bee mother, the mother Beast, and the mother Fowl in the fen,A call went up to the human world, to Woman, the mother of men.The call said, ‘Come: for we, the dumb, are given speech for a day,And the things we have thought for a thousand years we are going at last […]

DECORATION POEM FOR SOLDIERS’ GRAVES, TOURS, FRANCE, MAY 30, 1918 Flowers of France in the Spring,Your growth is a beautiful thing;But give us your fragrance and bloom –Yea, give us your lives in truth,Give us your sweetness and graceTo brighten the resting-placeOf the flower of manhood and youth,Gone into the dust of the tomb. This […]

When the motive is right and the will is strongThere are no limits to human power;For that great Force back of us moves alongAnd takes us with it, in trial’s hour. And whatever the height you yearn to climb,Though it never was trod by the foot of man,And no matter how steep–I say you CAN,If […]

This is the world’s stupendous hour –The supreme moment for the raceTo see the emptiness of power,The worthlessness of wealth and place,To see the purpose and the planConceived by God for growing man. And they who see and comprehendThat ultimate and lofty aimWill wait in patience for the end,Knowing injustice cannot claimOne lasting victory, or […]