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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ON GOING INTO ACTION, by HUGH REX FRESTON
First Line: Now the weak impulse and the blind desire
Last Line: That even hell's own gates should not prevail.
Subject(s): Soldiers; World War I; First World War
First Line: Now the weak impulse and the blind desire
Last Line: That even hell's own gates should not prevail.
Subject(s): Soldiers; World War I; First World War
Now the weak impulse and the blind desire
Give way at last to the all-conquering will.
Love now must pause, and fancy cease, until
The soul has won that freedom born of fire.
Sing, then, no songs upon the sweet-voiced lyre:
But choose some nobler instrument, whose shrill,
Nerve-bracing notes my doubting heart shall fill
With a new courage that will never tire.
Sing me the dead men's glorious deeds again!
Tell how they suffered, died, but would not fail!
Stir me to action! Let me feel their pain,
Their strength, their mystery:—that at the tale
I rise with such clear purpose in my brain
That even Hell's own gates should not prevail.
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