I waged a battle fierce and long,
I fought to know the right from wrong.
Did I succeed? I cannot tell,
Yet when I met sin I knew full well
That fight's not over. 'Tis scarcely begun,
And I struggle again to win, one by one,
Steps on the ladder that mounts to great deeds,
Where the path to the right unfailingly leads.
As I gazed at the battlefield, flooded with gore,
Where the path to the right unfailingly bore,
I knew that the wounds came from contact with sin.
'Twas demons let loose that float in the air;
But the fight's worth the while, for when
Misery and heartaches shall all pass away
Right has full sway.
The reading of the poems was followed intently by the big crowd in
Judge Brentano's courtroom. Mrs. McDonald appeared uninterested.
From poetry the step was easy into song. Accomplished and educated as
Dora McDonald was, with time hanging, sometimes, heavy on her hands,
what more natural than that she should set her verses to music of her
own composing?