WOODROW WILSON America will not turn back;She did not idly start,But weighed full carefully and wellHer grave, important part.She chose the part of Freedom’s friend,And will pursue it, to the end. Great Liberty, who guards her gates,Will shine upon her course,And light the long, adventurous pathWith radiance from God’s Source.And though blood dye that ocean […]

Now what were the words of Jesus,And what would He pause and say,If we were to meet in home or street,The Lord of the world to-day?Oh, I think He would pause and say:‘Go on with your chosen labour;Speak only good of your neighbour;Widen your farms, and lay down your arms,Or dig up the soil with […]

All the world was wearying,All the world was sad;Everything was shadow-filled;Things were going bad.Then a rumour stirred all heartsAs a wind stirs trees –Ten thousand men a dayComing over seas! Soon we saw them marching by –God! what a sight! –Shoulders back, and heads erect,Faces full of light.Smiling like a morn in May,Moving like a […]

In the journey of life, as we travel alongTo the mystical goal that is hidden from sight,You may stumble at times into Roadways of Wrong,Not seeing the sign-board that points to the right.Through caverns of sorrow your feet may be led,Where the noon of the day will like midnight appear.But no matter whither you wander […]

There must in heaven be many industriesAnd occupations, varied, infinite;Or heaven could not be heaven.What gracious tasksThe Mighty Maker of the universeCan offer souls that have prepared on earthBy holding lovely thoughts and fair desires! Art thou a poet to whom words come not?A dumb composer of unuttered sounds,Ignored by fame and to the world […]

DEDICATED TO THE MEN AND WOMEN OF FRANCE Our Motherland, dear Motherland,The source of beauty and of Art,Who but thy children understandThe love which permeates each heart!We see, through rainbow-tints of tears,Thy glory of a thousand years.O country of the Great and Free,We live for thee, we live for thee,Dear Motherland of France. O Motherland, […]

Three Souls there were that reached the Heavenly Gate,And gained permission of the Guard to wait.Barred from the bliss of Paradise by sin,They did not ask or hope to enter in.‘We loved one woman (thus their story ran);We lost her, for she chose another man.So great our love, it brought us to this door;We only […]

When love is lost, the day sets towards the night,Albeit the morning sun may still be bright,And not one cloud-ship sails across the sky.Yet from the places where it used to lieGone is the lustrous glory of the light. No splendour rests in any mountain height,No scene spreads fair and beauteous to the sight;All, all […]

Oh! it is not just the men who face the guns,Not the fighters at the Front alone, to-dayWho will bring the longed-for close to the bloody fray, for thoseCould not carry on that fray without the onesWho are working at war’s problems far away. You are ALL our splendid heroes in the strife,And we class […]

Oh, boastful, wicked land, that once was beautiful and great,How bitter and how black must be your self-invited fate,While Time goes down the centuries and sings his hymn of hate! Time’s voice is just. His words ring true. For as the past recedes,The clear-eyed Future slowly writes the story of its deeds;And as Time toward […]

I said I would have my fling,And do what a young man may;And I didn’t believe a thingThat the parsons have to say.I didn’t believe in a GodThat gives us blood like fire,Then flings us into hell becauseWe answer the call of desire. And I said: ‘Religion is rot,And the laws of the world are […]

I said, ‘I will place my heart, my heart all broken,Beside the world’s torn heart, that it may knowThe comradeship of sorrow that is not spoken,But is carried on wings of all the winds that blow.I will go homeless into homes of grieving,And find my own grief easier to be borne.’So over menacing seas I […]

Too tall our structures, and too swift our pace;Not so we mount, not so we gain the race.Too loud the voice of commerce in the land;Not so truth speaks, not so we understand.Too vast our conquests, and too large our gains;Not so comes peace, not so the soul attains. But the need of the world […]

Camouflage is all the rage.Ladies in their fight with age –Soldiers in their fight with foes –Demagogues who mask and poseIn the guise of statesmen–girlsBlack of eyes with golden curls –Politicians, votes in mind,Smiling, affable and kind,All use camouflage to-day.As you go upon your way,Walk with caution, move with care;Camouflage is everywhere!

I am a Road; a good road, fair and smooth and broad;And I link with my beautiful tetherTown and Country together,Like a ribbon rolled on the earth, from the reel of God.Oh, great the life of a Road! I am a Road; a long road, leading on and on;And I cry to the world to […]

This is the song for a soldierTo sing as he rides from homeTo the fields afar where the battles areOr over the ocean’s foam:‘Whatever the dangers waitingIn the lands I have not seen,If I do not fall–if I come back at all,Then I will come back clean. ‘I may lie in the mud of the […]

Gypsying, gypsying, through the world together,Never mind the way we go, never mind what port.Follow trails, or fashion sails, start in any weather:While we journey hand in hand, everything is sport. Gypsying, gypsying, leaving care and worry:Never mind the ‘if’ and ‘but’ (words for coward lips).Put them out with ‘fear’ and ‘doubt,’ in the pack […]

In the old wars of the world there were camp followers,Women of ancient sins who gave themselves for hire,Women of weak wills and strong desire.And, like the poison ivy in the woodsThat winds itself about tall virile treesUntil it smothers them, so theseRuined the bodies and the souls of men.More evil were they than Red […]

Berlin, Germany, gave the school children a half holiday to celebrate the sinking of the Lusitania. War declares a holiday;Little children, run and play.Ring-a-rosy round the earthWith the garland of your mirth. Shrill a song brim full of gleeOf a great ship sunk at sea.Tell with pleasure and with prideHow a hundred children died. Sing […]

When I was very young I used to feel the dark despairs of youth;Out of my little griefs I would invent great tragedies and woes;Not only for myself, but for all those I held most dearI would invent vast sorrows in my melancholy moods of thought.Yet down deep, deep in my heart there was an […]