Page:Armistice Day.djvu/78

56 FIVE SOULS

BY W. H. EWER

First Soul

a peasant of the Polish plain;

I left my plow because the message ran:

Russia, in danger, needed every man

To save her from the Teuton; and was slain.

I gave my life for freedom— This I know:

For those who bade me fight had told me so.

Second Soul

I was a Tyrolese, a mountaineer;

I gladly left my mountain home to fight

Against the brutal, treacherous Muscovite;

And died in Poland on a Cossack spear.

I gave my life for freedom— This I know:

For those who bade me fight had told me so.

Third Soul

I worked at Lyons at my weaver's loom,

When suddenly the Prussian despot hurled

His felon blow at France and at the world;

Then went I forth to Belgium and my doom,

I gave my life for freedom— This I know;

For those who bade me fight had told me so.