Page:Poems, Volume 1, Coates, 1916.djvu/151



OME home! The Land that sent you forth

From East and West, from South and North,

Looks wistfully beyond her gates,

Extends her arms and waits—and waits!

At duty's call she stilled her woe;

She smiled through tears and bade you go

To face the death you would not shun.

Brave hearts, return! Your task is done.

Not as you journeyed come you back!

A glory is about your track

Of deeds that vanquished tyranny

And set a tortured people free:

Deeds, sprung of manhood's finest grace,

That envious Time shall not efface;

Deeds that proclaim a Nation's worth,

And crown the Land that gave them birth.

America but waits to greet

And bless you, kneeling at her feet,