Punch/Volume 147/Issue 3830/To the Neutral Nations

by Owen Seaman

TO THE NEUTRAL NATIONS.

If you elect to stay outside
 And run no risk, on shore or sea,
Where men for all men's sake have died
 In this the War of Liberty
(The same whose figure points the pilot's way,
 Larger than life, in New York Bay);—

If you prefer to fold your hands
 And watch us, at your guarded ease,
Straining our strength to sweep the lands
 Clean of a deadly foul disease,
Which must, unless our courage find a cure,
Fall on your children, swift and sure;—

Stay out by all means; none shall ask
 The help that your free will declined;
We'll bear as best we may the task
 That duty's call to us assigned;
And you shall reap, ungrudged, in happier years
The harvest of our blood and tears.

Only—when this long fight is done,
 And, breathing Freedom's purer air,
You share the vantage we have won—
 Think not the honour, too, to share;
The honour shall be theirs and theirs alone
By whom the thrall was overthrown.

Meanwhile a boon: if not your swords,
 Give us your sympathy at need;
Show us the friendship which affords
 At least to let its pockets bleed;
And get your tradesmen kindly to forgo
Their traffic with a common foe.
O. S.

 

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