To Peace, With Victory
By Corinne Roosevelt Robinson (1861-1933) |
 |
|
I could not welcome
you, oh! longed-for peace,
Unless your coming had been
heralded
By victory. The legions who have bled
Had
elsewise died in vain for our release.
But now that
you come sternly, let me kneel
And pay my tribute to the
myriad dead,
Who counted not the blood that they have
shed
Against the goal their valor shall reveal.
Ah! what had been the shame, had all the stars
And
stripes of our brave flag drooped still unfurled,
When
the fair freedom of the weary world
Hung in the balance.
Welcome then the scars!
Welcome the sacrifice! With
lifted head
Our nation greets dear Peace as honor's
right;
And ye the Brave, the Fallen in the fight,
Had
ye not perished, then were honor dead!
You cannot
march away! However far,
Farther and faster still I shall
have fled
Before you; and that moment when you land,
Voiceless, invisible, close at your hand
My heart shall
smile, hearing the steady tread
Of your faith-keeping
feet.
First at the trenches I shall be to greet;
There's not a watch I shall not share with you;
But
more--but most--there where for you the red,
Drenched,
dreadful, splendid, sacrificial field lifts up
Inflexible
demand,
I will be there!
My hands shall hold the
cup.
My hands beneath your head
Shall bear you--not
the stretcher bearer's--through
All anguish of the dying
and the dead;
With all your wounds I shall have ached and
bled,
Waked, thirsted, starved, been fevered, gasped for
breath,
Felt the death dew;
And you shall live,
because my heart has said
To Death
That Death
itself shall have no part in you! |
By
Corinne Roosevelt Robinson (1861-1933)
Listed October 18, 2012
Note: In the long months before the United States entered
World War I many Americans took service under the flag of
France.
|
Poem Use Permission Request
USA Patriotism! cannot
provide use permission for a poem or an author's email address
if not listed below the poem. Only the author or a legal
representative can grant permission. Try a search engine to find the
author's contact information for a use permission request or if
it is available for public use.
Note: Poems authored in the
1700s and 1800s can be used with reference to the author. |
Comment on this poem |
|
| | |
|
| War and Tragedy Poems | Poem Categories |
|
