<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">To Fellow Travellers in Greece</h1><h1 align="" class="head"><span class="smallcaps">March</span>-<span class="smallcaps">September</span>, 1914</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">'T <span class="smallcaps">was</span> in the piping time of peace</p><p class="line">We trod the sacred soil of Greece,</p><p class="line">Nor thought, where the Ilissus runs,</p><p class="line">Of Teuton craft or Teuton guns;</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Nor dreamt that, ere the year was spent,</p><p class="line">Their iron challenge insolent</p><p class="line">Would round the world's horizons pour,</p><p class="line">From Europe to the Australian shore.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">The tides of war had ebb'd away</p><p class="line">From Trachis and Thermopylæ,</p><p class="line">Long centuries had come and gone</p><p class="line">Since that fierce day at Marathon;</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Freedom was firmly based, and we</p><p class="line">Wall'd by our own encircling sea;</p><p class="line">The ancient passions dead, and men</p><p class="line">Battl'd with ledger and with pen.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">So seem'd it, but to them alone</p><p class="line">The wisdom of the gods is known;</p><p class="line">Lest freedom's price decline, from far</p><p class="line">Zeus hurl'd the thunderbolt of war.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And so once more the Persian steel</p><p class="line">The armies of the Greeks must feel,</p><p class="line">And once again a Xerxes know</p><p class="line">The virtue of a Spartan foe.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Thus may the cloudy fates unroll'd</p><p class="line">Retrace the starry circles old,</p><p class="line">And the recurrent heavens decree</p><p class="line">A Periclean dynasty.</p></div><p class="byline">W. Macneile Dixon</p></body></html> · Great War