Hear a word, a word
in season, for the day is drawing nigh,
When the Cause shall call upon us, some to live, and some to
die!
He that dies shall not die lonely, many an one
hath gone before;
He that lives shall bear no burden heavier than the life they
bore.
Nothing ancient is their story, e’en but
yesterday they bled,
Youngest they of earth’s beloved, last of all the valiant
dead.
E’en the tidings we are telling was the
tale they had to tell,
E’en the hope that our hearts cherish, was the hope for
which they fell.
In the grave where tyrants thrust them, lies
their labour and their pain,
But undying from their sorrow springeth up the hope again.
Mourn not therefore, nor lament it, that the
world outlives their life;
Voice and vision yet they give us, making strong our hands for
strife.
Some had name, and fame, and honour,
learn’d they were, and wise and strong;
Some were nameless, poor, unlettered, weak in all but grief and
wrong.
Named and nameless all live in us; one and all
they lead us yet
Every pain to count for nothing, every sorrow to forget.
p.
69Hearken how they cry, “O happy, happy ye that ye
were born
In the sad slow night’s departing, in the rising of the
morn.
“Fair the crown the Cause hath for you,
well to die or well to live
Through the battle, through the tangle, peace to gain or peace to
give.”
Ah, it may be! Oft meseemeth, in the days
that yet shall be,
When no slave of gold abideth ’twixt the breadth of sea to
sea,
Oft, when men and maids are merry, ere the
sunlight leaves the earth,
And they bless the day beloved, all too short for all their
mirth,
Some shall pause awhile and ponder on the
bitter days of old,
Ere the toil of strife and battle overthrew the curse of
gold;
Then ’twixt lips of loved and lover
solemn thoughts of us shall rise;
We who once were fools and dreamers, then shall be the brave and
wise.
There amidst the world new-builded shall our
earthly deeds abide,
Though our names be all forgotten, and the tale of how we
died.
Life or death then, who shall heed it, what we
gain or what we lose?
Fair flies life amid the struggle, and the Cause for each shall
choose.
Hear a word, a word in season, for the day is
drawing nigh,
When the Cause shall call upon us, some to live, and some to
die!
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