Page:Fifes and Drums, Poems of America at War, Vigilantes, 1917.djvu/39



, Mother, it is true;

Bad daughters and worse sons we've been to you—

Taking all, giving naught—

Till we have brought

You down to this. . ..

You need

A starker breed

To cherish you and guard,

Keep watch and ward,

Or strike if strike they must!

Mother, our shameful heads are in the dust—

Abject—

Before you. . ..