Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

REVEILLE by LOUIS UNTERMEYER

Poet Analysis

First Line: WHAT SUDDEN BUGLE CALLS US IN THE NIGHT
Last Line: AND ANSWER IT -- AND GO.
Subject(s): PATRIOTISM;
What sudden bugle calls us in the night
And wakes us from a dream that we had shaped;
Flinging us sharply up against a fight
We thought we had escaped.

It is no easy waking, and we win
No final peace; our victories are few.
But still imperative forces pull us in
And sweep us somehow through.

Summoned by a supreme and confident power
That wakes our sleeping courage like a blow,
We rise, half-shaken, to the challenging hour,
And answer it -- and go.






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