Page:Patriotic pieces from the Great War, Jones, 1918.djvu/34

30 PEACE WITH A SWORD

By permission of the author

Peace! How we love her and the good she brings

On broad, benignant wings!

And we have clung to her, how close and long,

While she has made us strong!

Now we must guard her lest her power cease,

And in the harried world be no more peace.

Even with a sword,

Help us, O Lord!

For us no patient peace, the weary goal

Of a war-sickened soul;

No peace that battens on misfortune's pain,

Swollen with selfish gain,

Bending slack knees before a calf of gold,

With nerveless fingers impotent to hold

The freeman's sword.

Not this, O Lord!

No peace bought for us by the martyr dead

Of countries reeking red;

No peace flung to us from a tyrant's hand,

Sop to a servile land.

Our Peace the State's strong arm holds high and free,

"The placid peace she seeks in liberty,"