Patriotic pieces from the Great War/Rise Up! Rise Up, Crusaders!
RISE UP! RISE UP, CRUSADERS!
By permission of the author
Never in all the scarlet past
Since God first placed the suns,
Not when the Goths drank deep of blood,
And women feared the Huns,
Not when the hordes of Attila
Made toys of flame and shame,
Came call so clear
For them to hear
Who'd fight in Freedom's name.
Rise up! rise up, crusaders, to meet the hosts of Hell!
They prate of Art and Science but they give us shot and shell;
They call on God, blaspheming, as they plunge their hands in gore;
They've butchered millions, millions, and they'd butcher millions more.
What hold they dear who dare the race
To meet the might they wield?
The smile upon a baby's face?
The maid who would not yield?
The faith that men and nations keep
When sacred vows are made?
Why, then, should Europe's women weep?
Why preach we our crusade?
Rise up! rise up, ye stalwart, to save a world from woe!
The Hun is growing boastful. We must give him blow for blow.
Where Goths and Vandals wake again
From sleep that's ages long
There's madness in the souls of men,
And murder in their song.
They are not men as men are known
To human hearts alone,
Their music is a woman's wail,
Or dying hero's groan.
They crave a world's dominion,
And they come, a wanton flood,
To drown the hope that God gives man
In seas of human blood.
Rise up! rise up, crusaders!
Send forth a clarion cry!
The race shall not be slaves to Huns
Though you and I must die.
A world at war?
A billion men who arm and fight and slay?
What are our blaring bugles for?
Is Man insane to-day?
Not we to whom the call has come,
Not we, the unafraid,
Now arming, God be with us, for the last, the great Crusade;
Nor they who fight our fight with us,
Across the surging sea,
Where men are facing madmen
That all peoples may be free.