Page:Fifes and Drums, Poems of America at War, Vigilantes, 1917.djvu/44



we gave him doubts or praises,

That is a thing of yesterday.

We rally to the flag he raises,

We go the inevitable way,

But not with pageantry or shouting—

We're done alike with boast and doubting.

We take the trail that duty blazes

Be the issue what it may.

Brave are the words that he has spoken,

The words that we have made our own.

Our blood and sweat shall be the token

We fight for righteousness alone.

O God, who knowest all the making

Of noble vows—and all their breaking—