Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE HYMN OF ARMAGEDDON, by GEORGE SYLVESTER VIERECK


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE HYMN OF ARMAGEDDON, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Apocalyptic thunders roll out of the crimson east
Last Line: Shall rise the mystic commonwealth, the city of the lord!
Subject(s): Chicago


APOCALYPTIC thunders roll out of the crimson East:
The Day of Judgment is at hand, and we shall slay the Beast.
What are the seven heads of him, the Beast that shall be slain?
Sullivan, Tagearl, Lorimer, Barnes, Penrose, Murphy, Crane.
Into what cities leads his trail in venom steeped and gore?
Ask Frisco, ask Chicago, mark New York and Baltimore.
Where shall we wage the battle, for whom unsheath the sword?
We stand at Armageddon and we battle for the Lord!
Though hell spit forth its snarling host we shall not
flinch nor quail,
For in the last great skirmish God's own truth must pre-vail.
Have they not seen the writing that flames upon the wall.
Of how their house is built on sand, and how their pride must fall?
The cough of little lads that sweat where never sun sheds light,
The sob of starving children and their mothers in the night,
These, and the wrong of ages, we carry as a sword,
Who stand at Armageddon and who battle for the Lord
God's soldiers from the West are we, from North, and East and South,
The seed of them who flung the tea into the harbor's mouth,
And those who fought where Grant fought and those who fought with Lee,
And those who under alien stars first dreamed of liberty.
Not those of little faith whose speech is soft, whose ways are dark,
Nor those upon whose forehead the Beast has set his mark,
Out of the Hand of Justice we snatch her faltering sword,
We stand at Armageddon and we battle for the Lord!
The sternest militant of God whose trumpet in the fray
Has deft the city into three shall lead us on this day.
The holy strength that David had is his, the faith that saves,
For he shall free the toilers as Abe Lincoln freed the slaves.
And he shall rouse the lukewarm and those whose eyes are dim,
The hope of twenty centuries has found a voice in him.
Because the Beast shall froth with wrath and perish, by his sword
He leads at Armageddon the legions of the Lord!
For he shall move the mountains that groan with ancient Sham,
And mete with equal measure to the lion and the lamb.
And he shall wipe away the tears that burn on woman's cheek,
For in the nation's council hence the mothers too, shall speak.
Through him the rose of peace shall blow from the red rose of strife,
America shall write his name into the Book of Life.
And where at Armageddon we battle with the sword
Shall rise the mystic commonwealth, the City of the Lord!







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