Page:Battle-retrospect, and other poems - Wilder - 1923.djvu/16

 O Marshal of the myriad souls of men,

O Marshal of the squadrons of the stars,

Lead us out to Thy battles once again,

To marches and to sufferings and scars,

Beyond the seas, beyond the sunset-bars,

Out where the air is pure and dreams remain.

O Soldier, Friend of soldiers, understand!

Call us out from the peril of our sloth,

The cheapening of our faiths. Once more, command!

And we shall rise again, repugnant, wroth

From these dark ways, to march o'er sea and land

Again to hear the trumpets of the slain,

Again to see the flares float o'er the steep,

To see the angel legions swarm again

And on before our glorying columns sweep

Down lists that lead beyond earth's sodden plain.

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