Now is the time to be glad! Now is the time to be gay! With welcome the city is mad, And the flags and the wind are at play. There, down the street full of faces (Like a furrow that Joy has plowed), The heart and the eye run races Which first shall greet the proud Nearer and nearer they come! I can tell by the cheer and the shou That keep just ahead of the drum Where the little flags break out. I can tell by the blood's quick leaping My sluggish veins along, I can tell by my footstep keeping The rhythm of battle-song. Against them the sword of the Cid In the hand of a haughty foe; Against them the jungle that hid Iron-fanged serpents a-row; Against them the storm and the baking Of sun on the rain-drenched skin; Against them the fever's aching, Against them our civic sin. Here they are! father and lad. Now let us cheer them -- but stay! Too haggard that face to be glad, Too weary those feet to be gay. God! are these phantoms the handsome Young knights that went, eager to save? O Freedom, is this then the ransom We give for the starved and the slave? They whom we welcome to-day -- Why do the shout and the cheer Lining each step of their way Seem like a dirge and a tear? Is it that some may be wearing Laurels of others? Ay, see! Count the thin ranks of the daring: @3Each wears his laurels for three!@1 And we thought it a time to be glad! And we thought it a time to be gay! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DO YOU FEAR THE WIND? by HAMLIN GARLAND A WINTER TWILIGHT by ANGELINA WELD GRIMKE A NIGHT-PIECE ON DEATH by THOMAS PARNELL TO CHARLOTTE PULTENEY [IN HER MOTHER'S ARMS] by AMBROSE PHILIPS A TRIP TO PARIS AND BELGIUM: 16. ANTWERP TO GHENT by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI VISIONS OF THE WORLDS VANITIE by EDMUND SPENSER THE FISHER'S BOY by HENRY DAVID THOREAU |