WE BY HERVEY ALLEN We who have come back from the war, We who have walked with death in France, With life that hurtles like a spark As clean as fire, and frank and stark- We will not live by musty creeds, Who learned the truth through love and war, Who tipped the scales for right by deeds, When old men's lies were broken reeds, We follow where the cold fact leads And bow our heads no more. We have come back who broke the line Who drank with Death in blood red wine, COURAGE, MON AMI! BY WILLARD WATTLES Oh, it is good to camp with the spirit, Courage, my comrade, the devil is dying! Here's the bright sun and a cloud scudding free; The touch of your hand is too near for denying, And laughter's a tavern sufficient for me. Hang your old hat on the smoke-mellowed rafter, From TAMAR BY ROBINSON JEFFERS She answered, standing dark against the west in the window, the death of the winter rose of evening Behind her little high-poised head, and threading the brown twilight of the room with the silver Exultance of her voice, "My brother can you feel how happy I am, but how far off too? If I have done wrong it has turned good to me, I could almost be sorry that I have to die now Out of such freedom; if I were standing back of the evening crimson on a mountain in Asia All the fool shames you can whip up into a filth of words would not be farther off me, Nor any fear of anything, if I stood in the evening star and saw this dusty dime's worth A dot of light, dropped up the star-gleam." THE CELESTIAL SURGEON BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON If I have faltered more or less A piercing pain, a killing sin, From THE COLLAR BY GEORGE HERBERT I struck the board and cry'd, "No more; I will abroad." What, shall I ever sigh and pine? My lines and life are free; free as the road, Have I no bayes to crown it, No flowers, no garlands gay? all blasted, Not so, my heart; but there is fruit, Recover all thy sigh-blown age On double pleasures; leave thy cold dispute Which pettie thoughts have made; and made to thee And be thy law, While thou didst wink and wouldst not see. Away! take heed; I will abroad. Call in thy death's-head there, tie up thy fears; To suit and serve his need Deserves his load. AN OLD SONG RESUNG BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS Down by the salley gardens my love and I did meet; She passed the salley gardens with little snow-white feet. She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree; But I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree. In a field by the river my love and I did stand, hand. She bid me take life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs; But I was young and foolish, and now am full of tears. A Selection from THE POEM OF JOYS BY WALT WHITMAN ... O the joy of my spirit! it is uncaged! it darts like lightning! It is not enough to have this globe, or a certain time— I will have thousands of globes, and all time .. |