Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A CALL TO NATIONAL SERVICE, by THOMAS HARDY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A CALL TO NATIONAL SERVICE, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Up and be doing, all who have a hand
Last Line: So loud for promptness all around outcries!
Subject(s): Great Britain; Patriotism; World War I; First World War


UP and be doing, all who have a hand
To lift, a back to bend. It must not be
In times like these that vaguely linger we
To air our vaunts and hopes; and leave our land

Untended as a wild of weeds and sand.
- Say, then, 'I come!' and go, O women and men
Of palace, ploughshare, easel, counter, pen;
That scareless, scathless, England still may stand.

Would years but let me stir as once I stirred
At many a dawn to take the forward track,
And with a stride plunged on to enterprize,

I now would speed like yester wind that whirred
Through yielding pines; and serve with never a slack,
So loud for promptness all around outcries!





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