Page:The Hope of the Great Community (1916).djvu/149




 * Watchman, what of the night? —
 * Storm and thunder and rain,
 * Lights that waver and wane,
 * Leaving the watchfires unlit.
 * Only the balefires are bright,
 * And the flash of the lamps now and then
 * From a palace where spoilers sit,
 * Trampling the children of men.


 * Prophet, what of the night? —
 * I stand by the verge of the sea,
 * Banished, uncomforted, free,
 * Hearing the noise of the waves
 * And sudden flashes that smite
 * Some man's tyrannous head,
 * Thundering, heard among graves
 * That hide the hosts of his dead.


 * Mourners, what of the night? —
 * All night through without sleep
 * We weep, and we weep, and we weep.
 * Who shall give us our sons?
 * Beaks of raven and kite,
 * Mouths of wolf and of hound,
 * Give us them back whom the guns
 * Shot for you dead on the ground.


 * Dead men, what of the night? —
 * Cannon and scaffold and sword,