Jump to content

Page:Songs, Legends, and Ballads.djvu/140

From Wikisource
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
128
SONGS, LEGENDS, AND BALLADS.

Come hither with glowing faces, the sire, the youth, and the child;
This grave is a shrine for reverent hearts and hands that are uudefiled:
Its ashes are inspiration; it giveth us strength to bear,
And sweepeth away dissension, and uerveth the will to dare.

In the midst of the tombs, a Gravestone — and written thereon no word!
And behold, at the head of the grave, a gibbet, a torch, and a sword!
And the people kneel by the gibbet, and pray by the nameless stone
For the torch to be lit, and the name to be writ, and the sword's red work to be done!


II.

With pride and not with grief
We lay this century leaf
Upon the tomb with hearts that do not falter: