Page:Fifes and Drums, Poems of America at War, Vigilantes, 1917.djvu/104



wait the flag—These men who hold their own

Against that beast (blood-mad and madly blind)

Who seeks to poison all of human-kind,

And snarl above a ravaged world alone.

They wait the flag—that sign that shall be shown

To prove that with them—one in might and mind—

Their mates from over-sea, long held behind

Strive with them where the foremost lines are thrown.

Dear God, to see that day when France shall turn,

Like some brave mariner who fought the gale

The live-long night, to see against the dawn