Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE CALL OF THE DEAD, by WILLIAM ARTHUR DUNKERLEY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE CALL OF THE DEAD, by                    
First Line: Do you hear a deep voice calling?
Last Line: "and, having done all, -- stand!"
Alternate Author Name(s): Oxenham, John
Subject(s): Religion; Theology


Do you hear a deep voice calling? --
Calling persistently? --
Like the sound of God's great waters, --
Calling insistently?
'Tis the voice of our dead, our myriad dead,
Calling to you and me; --

"By the red deaths we have suffered,
By the fiery paths we trod,
By the lives we gave All Life to save, --
We call you back to God.

"We call you from your trifling
With the petty things of life;
We cry aloud for a new world vowed
To a world-redeeming strife.

"We call you to cut the cankers
That have grown around your growth;
We call you from by-ways to High Ways,
And the pledge of a new God-troth.

"We call you to His high service;
You have followed other gods;
Their baneful ways brought the evil days,
And loosed the grim red floods.

"On your knees, on your knees, seek pardon
For the wrongs that have been done! --
For the perverse wills, and the active ills,
And the high things left undone!

"One way there is, -- one only,
Whereby ye may stand sure;
One way by which ye may withstand
All foes, and Life's High Ways command,
And make your building sure. --
Take God once more as Cousellor
Work with Him, hand in hand,
Build surely, in His Grace and Power,
The nobler things that shall endure,
And, having done all, -- STAND!"





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