Classic and Contemporary Poetry
WHAT CAN WE DO?, by AMOS RUSSEL WELLS Poet's Biography First Line: At last, after patient years, we have grit and grace Last Line: They shall have right to look god in the face. Subject(s): World War I; First World War | ||||||||
At last, after patient years, we have grit and grace To look in a Frenchman's face; We can speak the Belgian, the British, the Russian name Without a sinking of shame. At last -- oh, the joy and the pride of it! -- Our country will "do her bit"! Though our brother is over the farthest sea, Our brother's keepers are we. Though savage chief, or the distant, most alien lord Has done a deed abhorred, Though the meanest churl in the deepest African wild Has beaten the smallest child, Ours is the quarrel, and ours is the holy cause, And ours are Duty's laws. Who has heard of a righteousness of degrees, Hemmed by convenient seas? Of brotherhood bounded, Of mercy surrounded, Of love cold-shackled by ease? A widow's tear is a little thing, But it drowns the pomp of the mightiest king, And it washes boundary lines away, And it sweeps old foulnesses into the day, And on it travels, afar, alone, Till it leaps to the foot of the great white throne. There is no distant and no near, No halting, no fear, When a hero sees a widow's tear. What can we do? It is easy to be too young, too old; It is easy to be too rich, too poor, Too busy to see it through, Too basely secure; But it is not easy to be too bold. What can we do? We can do the thing we are told. Not to the hero the choice of his deed, Weighing the easiest, picking the safest and least. His to answer the need, Far or near, west or east, In the general's tent or where men battle and bleed. This is the hero's test: Not prudence, not foresight, not calmness and caution of mind, But a leap, and no looking behind; An instant yea, and God for the rest. With no debate, No query of dubious fate, Though he choose the bursting shell, Though he choose a flaming hell, Though he choose the hospital's pitiful, narrow strait, The hero chooses well. Better a lifetime hid from the light of the sun Than be blind to the world's great need and the thing to be done. Better a lifetime shut from the song of the bird Than be deaf to Duty's imperial word. Better a lifetime bound to the cripple's chair Than walk for an hour the path of a coward's care. Better an empty purse forever and aye Than a purse filled once, only once, the Judas way. Better Duty's rudest, ungarlanded grave Than all the glittering show of a selfish knave. What can we do? We can hold us true To the highest thought and the broadest view. We can smile at the threat of an evil fate. We can scorn to hate, We can bury fear in the pit of doubt, We can sing, we can sing with courage stout, We can see it through. What can we do? We can do our best. Each his best and not his neighbor's, -- Money, body, prayers and labors, Cheer and faith and eager zest; Each, at the world-wide, heaven-high call To do his best, to stand or fall, To lead or follow, tarry or go, Guard at home or face the foe, Living to die, and dying to live, His best, and all of his best, to give. And at last, when the glorious end has come, And the battle sounds forever are dumb, When the battle horror, the battle fear, Are lost in the light of the golden year, When all are seeking all men's good And the nations are welded in brotherhood, Then -- oh, jubilant dawning! -- then Heroes of women and heroes of men They shall have right to the victors' place, They shall have right to look God in the face. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...D'ANNUNZIO by ERNEST HEMINGWAY 1915: THE TRENCHES by CONRAD AIKEN TO OUR PRESIDENT by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE HORSES by KATHARINE LEE BATES CHILDREN OF THE WAR by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE U-BOAT CREWS by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE RED CROSS NURSE by KATHARINE LEE BATES WAR PROFITS by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE UNCHANGEABLE by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN A BATTLE SONG (WRITTEN IN THE WORLD WAR) by AMOS RUSSEL WELLS |
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