Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A PRAYER, AFTER SANTIAGO, by SILAS WEIR MITCHELL


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A PRAYER, AFTER SANTIAGO, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Almighty god! Eternal source / of every arm we dare to wield
Last Line: Could strike, yet spare the fallen state.
Subject(s): God; Prayer; Santiago, Battle Of (1898); Spanish-american War (1898); War


ALMIGHTY GOD! eternal source
Of every arm we dare to wield,
Be Thine the thanks, as Thine the force,
On reeling deck or stricken field;
The thunder of the battle hour
Is but the whisper of Thy power.

Thine is our wisdom, Thine our might;
Oh, give us, more than strength and skill,
The calmness born of sense of right,
The steadfast heart, the quiet will
To keep the awful tryst with death,
To know Thee in the cannon's breath.

By Thee was given the thought that bowed
All hearts upon the victor deck,
When, high above the battle-shroud,
The white flag fluttered o'er the wreck,
And Thine the hand that checked the cheer
In that wild hour of death and fear!

O Lord of love! be Thine the grace
To teach, amid the wrath of war,
Sweet pity for a humbled race,
Some thought of those in lands afar
Where sad-eyed women vainly yearn
For them that never shall return.

Great Master of earth's mighty school,
Whose children are of every land,
Inform with love our alien rule,
And stay us with Thy warning hand
If, tempted by imperial greed,
We, in Thy watchful eyes, exceed;

That in the days to come, O Lord,
When we ourselves have passed away,
And all are gone who drew the sword,
The children of our breed may say,
These were our sires, who, doubly great,
Could strike, yet spare the fallen state.





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