Page:Canadian poems of the great war.djvu/140

 Isabel Ecclestone Mackay

This is Our Badge— This cross by which is sealed Courage and mercy on a stainless field, Courage which goes wherever War must go, Mercy which calls no fallen man a foe; This is Our Badge, No prouder badge may be Than this, the pledge of man's humanity!

This Our Crusade— To waken hope once more In that sad People, helpless at our door; To send swift healing where our wounded are; To bring home near to those whose homes are far; This Our Crusade, To follow War's dark way Smoothing his dreadful footprints as we may!

e lay on the gray of the earth In the gray of the dawm; Above him the stars faded out, And the planets swept on; A little wind woke from its sleep on the hill, A sleepy bird stirred, trilled a note and was still. He said:

'Ere the sun's first, swift lances are hurled My soul must find wings to be gone O'er the rim of the world! What wings shall you find, O my soul? Have you fought to be free? Have you killed for some terrible good In a day yet to be? Red dew, fallen thick as God's dew on the mould, Lies it there for an altar defiled Or a hearthstone made cold?