Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE NEW VICTORY, by MARGARET WIDDEMER



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE NEW VICTORY, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Victory comes
Last Line: The stable world itself is her great monument!
Alternate Author Name(s): Schauffler, Mrs. Robert H.
Subject(s): Holidays; Peace; Veterans Day


Victory comes:
Not hard and laughing as she came of yore,
Her scarlet arms heaped high with spoils of war;
Her slaves, to beating drums,
Low-bent and bearing gifts. ...
The black cloud lifts,
And, lifting our long-weary eyes to see,
There dawns upon our sight,
Majestic, crowned with light,
Stern and so quiet—she must keep her strength
To build at weary length,
Over again, our scarred and shattered world—
This, then, ah, this is she,
Our graver Victory.

She follows down the furrows
War turned across the world,
Where still the spent shell burrows,
Where the black shot was hurled,
And sows the wheat and corn.
The world, from anguish born
Again from its old grief,
Looks up, athirst
And hungering,
Daring to dream again
Of flowers unhurt, and unstained rain
And love and spring:

Knowing that she shall build each place accurst
Into a thing that may some day again
Be our once land of comfort and delight,
Of ease and mockery. ...
Even forgetfulness:
Even the gift to bless.

Victory paces slowly through the lands:
No lash is in her hands,
She builds herself no triumph-arch for cover,
No common marble toy—
She is too great for joy.
She who upbuilds
Each little shattered home
And brings men back to it: and lover gives to lover,
And to the shattered soul its faith again,
And to the world continuance of God—
How should our praise for her
In high crowned buildings stand—oh, how be pent
In built or written thing?
The stable world itself is her great monument!





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