<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">The Sword of Lafayette</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">It was the time of our despair,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">When lion-hearted Washington --</p><p class="line">That man of patience and of prayer --</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Looked sadly at each rising sun.</p><p class="line">In all the freedom-breeding air,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Of hope and rescue there was none.</p><p class="line">When lo! -- as down from Heaven let,</p><p class="line">There came the sword of Lafayette!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Our harbors -- how they danced with light!</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Our tireless bells -- how they did ring!</p><p class="line">Again we girded up to fight</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Not England, but her Prussian king.</p><p class="line">For here was succor, and the might</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Of one great soul's imagining...</p><p class="line">What wonder if our eyes be wet</p><p class="line">To see the sword of Lafayette!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Upon the walls where Justice keeps</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The swords she doth most gladly save,</p><p class="line">Not one of all so deeply sleeps</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Within the scabbard's honored grave</p><p class="line">But, listening for her call, it leaps,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">To live again among the brave.</p><p class="line">Thank Heaven our naked blade is set</p><p class="line">Beside the sword of Lafayette!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Not his, not ours, the brutal strife,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The vulgar greed of soil or dross;</p><p class="line">The feet that follow drum and fife</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Shall tread to nobler gain or loss.</p><p class="line">'Tis for the holiness of life</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The Spirit calls us to the Cross.</p><p class="line">Forget us, God, if we forget</p><p class="line">The sacred sword of Lafayette!</p></div><p class="byline">-- Robert Underwood Johnson.<br xmlns:exist="http://exist.sourceforge.net/NS/exist" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"/> By permission from forthcoming 2nd Ed.<br xmlns:exist="http://exist.sourceforge.net/NS/exist" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"/> "Poems of War and Peace." </p></body></html> · Great War