Why should the poet of these pregnant timesBe asked to sing of war’s unholy crimes? To laud and eulogise the trade which thrivesOn horrid holocausts of human lives? Man was a fighting beast when earth was young,And war the only theme when Homer sung. ‘Twixt might and might the equal contest lay:Not so the battles […]

Little lads and grandsires,Women old with care;But all the men are dying menOr dead men over there. No one stops to dig graves;Who has time to spare?The dead men, the dead menHow the dead men stare. Kings are out a-hunting –Oh, the sport is rare;With dying men and dead menFalling everywhere. Life for lads and […]

There was no wind, and yet the airSeemed suddenly astir;There were no forms, and yet all spaceSeemed thronged with growing hosts.They came from Where, and from Nowhere,Like phantoms as they were;They came from many a land and place –The ghosts, the ghosts, the ghosts. And some were white, and some were grey,And some were red […]

A book has been made for the King,A book of beauty and art;To the good king’s eyesA smile shall riseHiding the ache in his heart –Hiding the hurt and the griefAs he turns it, leaf by leaf. A book has been made for the King,A book of blood and of blight;To the Great King’s eyesA […]

Said the Kaiser’s god to the god of the Czar:‘Hark, hark, how my people pray.Their faith, methinks, is greater by farThan all the faiths of the others are;They know I will help them slay.’ Said the god of the Czar: ‘My people callIn a medley of tongues; they knowI will lend my strength to them […]

That pale word ‘Neutral’ sits becominglyOn lips of weaklings. But the men whose brainsFind fuel in their blood, the men whose mindsHold sympathetic converse with their hearts,Such men are never neutral. That word standsUnsexed and impotent in Realms of Speech.When mighty problems face a startled worldNo virile man is neutral. Right or wrongHis thoughts go […]

You have lived long and learned the secret of life, O Seer!Tell me what are the best three things to seek –The best three things for a man to seek on earth? The best three things for a man to seek, O Son! are these:Reverence for that great Source from whence he came;Work for the […]

Oh the Kings of earth have mobilised their men.See them moving, valour proving,To the fields of glory going,Banners flowing, bugles blowing,Every one a mother’s son,Brave with uniform and gun,Keeping step with easy swing,Yes, with easy step and light marching onward to the fight,Just to please the warlike fancy of a King;Who has mobilised his army […]

A toast to the splendid daughtersOf the New World over the waters,A world that is great as new;Daughters of brave old races,Daughters of heights and spaces,Broad seas and broad earth places –Hail to your land and you! The sun and the winds have fed you;The width of your world has led youOut into the larger […]

There are, there areInvisible Great Helpers of the race.Across unatlased continents of space,From star to star.In answer to some soul’s imperious need,They speed, they speed. When the earth-loving young are forced to standUpon the border of the Unknown Land,They come, they come–those angels who have trodThe altitudes of God,And to the trembling heartTheir strength impart.Have […]

One ship drives east and another drives west,With the self-same winds that blow,‘Tis the set of the sailsAnd not the galesThat tell them the way to go.Like the winds of the sea are the winds of fate,As we voyage along through life,‘Tis the set of the soulThat decides its goalAnd not the calm or the […]

Angel of Peace, the hounds of war,Unleashed, are all abroad,And war’s foul trade again is madeMan’s leading aim in life.Blood dyes the billow and the sod;The very winds are rifeWith tales of slaughter. Angel, pray,What can we do or think or sayIn times like these?‘Child, think of God!’ ‘Before this little speck in spaceCalled Earth […]

Peace should not come along this foul, earth way.Peace should not come, until we cleanse the path.God waited for us; now in awful wrathHe pours the blood of men out day by dayTo purify the highroad for her feet.Why, what would Peace do, in a world where heartsAre filled with thoughts like poison-pointed darts?It were […]

One day when England’s June was at its best,I saw a stately and imperious swanFloating on Avon’s fair untroubled breast.Sudden, it seemed as if all strife had goneOut of the world; all discord, all unrest. The sorrows and the sinnings of the raceFaded away like nightmares in the dawn.All heaven was one blue background for […]

How large thy task, O teacher of the young,To take the ravelled threads by parents flungWith careless hands, and through consummate careTo weave a fabric, fine and firm and fair.God’s uncompleted work is thine to do –Be brave and true!

Methinks there is no greater work in lifeThan making beauty. Can the mind conceiveOne little corner in celestial realmsUnbeautiful, or dull or commonplace?Or picture ugly angels, illy clad?Beauty and splendour, opulence and joy,Are attributes of God and His domain,And so are worth and virtue. But why preachOf virtue only to the sons of men,Ignoring beauty, […]

HE One decade and a half since first we cameWith hearts aflameInto Love’s Paradise, as man and mate;And now we separate.Soon, all too soon,Waned the white splendour of our honeymoon.We saw it fading; but we did not knowHow bleak the path would be when once its glowWas wholly gone.And yet we two were forced to […]

New paradise, and groom and bride;The world was all their own;Her heart swelled full of love and pride;Yet were they quite alone?‘Now how is it, oh how is it, and why is it’ (in fearAll silent to herself she spake) ‘that something strange seems here?’ Along the garden paths they walked –The moon was at […]

There was a man who killed a loving maidIn some mad mood of passion; and he paidThe price, upon a scaffold. Now his nameStands only as a synonym for shame.There was another man, who took to wifeA loving woman. She was full of life,Of hope, and aspirations; and her prideClothed her like some rich mantle. […]

Now much there is need of doing must not be done in haste;But slowly and with patience, as a jungle is changed to a town.But listen, my brothers, listen; it is not always so:When a murderer’s hand is lifted to kill, there is no time to waste;And the way to change his purpose is first […]