You may thrill with the speed of your thoroughbred steed,You may laugh with delight as you ride the ocean,You may rush afar in your touring car,Leaping, sweeping, by things that are creeping –But you never will know the joy of motionTill you rise up over the earth some day,And soar like an eagle, away–away. High […]

We are the army stevedores, lusty and virile and strong,We are given the hardest work of the war, and the hours are long.We handle the heavy boxes, and shovel the dirty coal;While soldiers and sailors work in the light, we burrow below like a mole.But somebody has to do this work, or the soldiers could […]

There is something in the sound of drum and fifeThat stirs all the savage instincts into life. In the old times of peace we went our ways,Through proper daysOf little joys and tasks. Lonely at times,When from the steeple sounded wedding chimes,Telling to all the world some maid was wife –But taking patiently our part […]

Whatever the task that comes your way,Just take it as part of your luck.Look it right square in the eyes, and say,‘This is MY task, I’ll do it to-day’:Don’t pass the buck. Oh! whether you cook, or whether you fight,Or whether you trundle a truck,Just tackle your job and do it right:Don’t pass the buck. […]

Oh! the maidens of France are certainly fine,And I think every fellow will stateThat the ‘what-you-may-call-it’ coiffured wayThey put up their hair is great!And they know how to dress, and they wear their clothesIn a fetching, Frenchy way;And yet to me, there is just one girl –The girl of the U.S.A. I like to listen […]

The deepest tragedies of life are notPut into books, or acted on the stage.Nay, they are lived in silence, by tense heartsIn homes, among dull unperceiving kin,And thoughtless friends, who make a whip of wordsWherewith to lash these hearts, and call it wit. There is a tragedy lived everywhereIn Christian lands, by an increasing hordeOf […]

Obscured the sun, the world is dark;Maid of Orleans, Joan of Arc,Send down thy spark. Let every heart in France be stirred,By such an all-compelling wordAs thou once heard. Say to each soul, ‘Lo! I am near;My voice still speaks in accents clear.Be still and hear. ‘The France I saved can not be lost;Though tempest-torn […]

I saw them beautiful, in fair array upon Commencement Day;Lissome and lovely, radiant and sweetAs cultured roses, brought to their estateBy careful training. Finished and complete(As teachers calculate). They passed in maiden grace along the aisle,Leaving the chaste white sunlight of a smileUpon the gazing throng.Musing I thought upon their place as mothers of the […]

Back of each soldier who fights for France,Ay, back of each woman and manWho toils and prays through these long tense days,Is the spirit of Great Joan.For the love she gave, and the life she gave,In the eyes of God sufficedTo crown her with light, and power, and might,That made her second to Christ. And […]

O well have we done the old tasks! in the old, old ways of earth.We have kept the house in order, we have given the children birth;And our sons went out with their fathers, and left us alone at the hearth! We have cooked the meats for their table; we have woven their cloth at […]

Sisters, sisters of mine, have we done what we couldIn all the old ways, through all the new days,To better the race and to make life sweet and good?Have we played the full part that was ours in the start,Sisters of mine? Sisters, sisters of mine, as we hurry alongTo a larger world, with our […]

Over the din of battle,Over the cannons’ rattle,Over the strident voices of men and their dying groans,I hear the falling of thrones. Out of the wild disorderThat spreads from border to border,I see a new world rising from ashes of ancient towns;And the rulers wear no crowns. Over the blood-charged water,Over the fields of slaughter,Down […]

Suddenly and without warning they came –The Revealing Angels came.Suddenly and simultaneously, through city streets,Through quiet lanes and country roads they walked.They walked crying: ‘God has sent us to findThe vilest sinners of earth.We are to bring them before Him, before the Lord of Life.’ Their voices were like bugles;And then all war, all strife,And […]

Oh! we love all the French, and we speak in FrenchAs along through France we go.But the moments to us that are keen and sweetAre the ones when our khaki boys we meet,Stalwart and handsome and trim and neat;And we call to them–‘Boys, hello!’‘Hello, American boys,Luck to you, and life’s best joys!American boys, hello!’ We […]

So many people–people–in the world;So few great souls, love ordered, well begun,In answer to the fertile mother need!So few who seemThe image of the Maker’s mortal dream;So many born of mere propinquity –Of lustful habit, or of accident.Their mothers feltNo mighty, all-compelling wish to seeTheir bosoms garden-placesAbloom with flower faces;No tidal wave swept o’er them […]

ON THE PRESENTATION OF AN AMERICAN BANNER TO CAMP ROCHAMBEAU BY THE MARQUISE DE ROCHAMBEAU AT TOURS, FRANCE, JUNE 1, 1918 Here is a picture I carry awayOn memory’s wall. A green June day,A golden sun in an amethyst sky,And a beautiful banner floating as highAs the lofty spires of the city of Tours,And a […]

Thinking of one thing all day long, at nightI fall asleep, brain weary and heart sore;But only for a little while. At three,Sometimes at two o’clock, I wake and lie,Staring out into darkness; while my thoughtsBegin the weary treadmill-toil again,From that white marriage morning of our youthDown to this dreadful hour. I see your faceLit […]

In France I saw a hill–a gentle slopeRising above old tombs to greet the gleamFrom soft spring skies. Beyond these skies dwells hope,But those green graves bespeak a broken dream. There was a row of narrow beds, new-made;Each bore a starry banner and a cross.And each the name of one who, ere he playedHis role […]

I What have you done, and what are you doing with life, O Man!O Average Man of the world –Average Man of the Christian world we call civilised?What have you done to pay for the labour pains of the mother who bore you?On earth you occupy space; you consume oxygen from the air:And what do […]

Veils, everywhere float veils; veils long and black,Framing white faces, oft-times young and fair,But, like a rose touched by untimely frost,Showing the blighting marks of sorrow’s track. Veils, veils, veils everywhere. They tell the costOf man-made war. They show the awful tollPaid by the hearts of women for the crimes,The age-old crimes by selfishness ill-named‘Justice’ […]