Page:Poems of Patriotism (1942).djvu/37

 It is better to die for the flag,
 * For its red and its white and its blue,

Than to hang back and shirk and to lag
 * And let the flag sink out of view.

It is better to give up this life In the heat and the thick of the strife Than to live out your days ’neath a sky, Where Old Glory shall never more fly.

The peace that we long for will be
 * Far worse than the war that we dread

If never again we’re to see
 * The blue and the white and the red

Wind-tossed and sun-kissed in the skies. If ever the Stars and Stripes dies Or loses its luster and pride, We shall wish in our souls we had died.

It is better by far that we die
 * Than that flag shall pass out of the world;

If ever it ceases to fly,
 * If ever it’s hauled down and furled,