Blow your trumpets, little children!
From the East and from the West,
From the cities in the valley,
From God’s dwelling on the mountain,
Blow your blast that Peace might know
She is Queen of God’s great army.
With the crying blood of millions
We have written deep her name
In the Book of all the Ages;
With the lilies in the valley,
With the roses by the Mersey,
With the golden flower of Jersey
We have crowned her smooth young temples.
Where her footsteps cease to falter
Golden grain will greet the morning,
Where her chariot descends
Shall be broken down the altars
Of the gods of dark disturbance.
Nevermore shall men know suffering,
Nevermore shall women wailing
Shake to grief the God of Heaven.
From the East and from the West,
From the cities in the valley,
From God’s dwelling on the mountain,
Little children, blow your trumpets!
From Ethiopia, groaning ’neath her heavy burdens,
I
heard the music of the old
slave songs.
I heard the wail of warriors, dusk brown, who grimly
fought the fight of others
in the trenches of Mars.
I heard the plea of blood-stained men of dusk and
the
crimson in my veins leapt
furiously.
Forget not, O my brothers, how we fought
In No Man’s Land that peace might
come again!
Forget not, O my brothers, how we gave
Red blood to save the freedom of the world!
We were not free, our tawny hands were
tied;
But Belgium’s plight and Serbia’s
woes we shared
Each rise of sun or setting of the moon.
So when the bugle blast had called us
forth
We went not like the surly brute of yore
But, as the Spartan, proud to give the
world
The freedom that we never knew nor shared.
These chains, O brothers mine, have weighed
us down
As Samson in the temple of the gods;
Unloosen them and let us breathe the air
That makes the goldenrod the flower of
Christ.
For we have been with thee in No Man’s
Land,
Through lake of fire and down to Hell
itself;
And now we ask of thee our liberty,
Our freedom in the land of Stars and Stripes.
I am glad that the Prince of Peace is hovering over No Man’s Land.
TIRED
I am tired of work; I am tired of building up somebody else’s civilization.
Let us take a rest, M’Lissy Jane.
I will go down to the Last Chance Saloon, drink a gallon or two of gin, shoot a game or two of dice and sleep the rest of the night on one of Mike’s barrels.
You will let the old shanty go to rot, the white people’s clothes turn to dust, and the Calvary Baptist Church sink to the bottomless pit.
You will spend your days forgetting you married me and your nights hunting the warm gin Mike serves the ladies in the rear of the Last Chance Saloon.