(On the Declaration of War)
_Not_ like to those who find untrodden ways;
But down the weary paths we know,
Through every change of sky and change of days
Silent, processional we go.
Not unto us the soft, unlaboured breath
Of children's hopes and children's fears:
We are not sworn to battle to the death
With all the wrongs of all the years:
We are old, we are old, and worn and school'd with ills,
Maybe our road is almost done,
Maybe we are drawn near unto the hills
Where rest is and the setting sun:
But yet a pride is ours that will not brook
The taunts of fools too saucy grown,
He that is rash to prove it, let him look
He kindle not a fire unknown.
Since first we flung our gauntlet to the skies
And dared the high Gods' will to bend,
A fire that still may burn deceit and lies
Burn and consume them to the end.
"Dark is the World our Fathers left us"
_Dark_ is the world our fathers left us,
Wearily, greyly the long years flow,
Almost the gloom has of hope bereft us,
Far is the high gods' song and low:
Sombre the crests of the mountains lonely,
Leafless, wind-ridden, moan the trees:
Down in the valleys is twilight only,
Twilight over the mourning seas:
Time was when earth was always golden,
Time was when skies were always clear:
Spirits and souls of the heroes olden,
Faint are cries from the darkness, hear!
Tear ye the veil of time asunder
Tear the veil, 'tis the gods' command,
Hear we the sun-stricken breakers thunder
Over the shore where the heroes stand.
----
Dark is the world our fathers left us,
Heavily, greyly the long years flow,
Almost the gloom has of hope bereft us,
Far is the high gods' song and low.