<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">"Ode."</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="subhead">I.</p><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">On</span> that long day when England held her breath,</p><p class="line">Suddenly gripped at heart</p><p class="line">And called to choose her part</p><p class="line">Between her loyal soul and luring sophistries,</p><p class="line">We watched the wide, green-bosomed land beneath</p><p class="line">Driven and tumultuous skies;</p><p class="line">We watched the volley of white shower after shower</p><p class="line">Desolate with fierce drops the fallen flower;</p><p class="line">And still the rain's retreat</p><p class="line">Drew glory on its track,</p><p class="line">And still, when all was darkness and defeat,</p><p class="line">Upon dissolving cloud the bow of peace shone back.</p><p class="line">So in our hearts was alternating beat,</p><p class="line">With every dread elate;</p><p class="line">And Earth dyed all her day in colours of our fate.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="subhead">II.</p><p class="line">But, oh, how faint the image we foretold</p><p class="line">In fancies of our fear</p><p class="line">Now that the truth is here</p><p class="line">And we awake from dream, yet think it still a dream.</p><p class="line">It bursts our thoughts with more than thought can hold;</p><p class="line">And more than human seem</p><p class="line">These agonies of conflict; Elements</p><p class="line">At war! yet not with vast indifference</p><p class="line">Casually crushing; nay,</p><p class="line">It is as if were hurled</p><p class="line">Lightnings that murdered, seeking out their prey;</p><p class="line">As if an earthquake shook to chaos half the world,</p><p class="line">Equal in purpose as in power to slay;</p><p class="line">And thunder stunned our ears</p><p class="line">Streaming in rain of blood on torrents that are tears.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="subhead">III.</p><p class="line">Around a planet rolls the drum's alarm.</p><p class="line">Far where the summer smiles</p><p class="line">Upon the utmost isles,</p><p class="line">Danger is treading silent as a fever-breath.</p><p class="line">Now in the North the secret waters arm;</p><p class="line">Under the wave is Death:</p><p class="line">They fight in the very air, the virgin air,</p><p class="line">Hovering on fierce wings to the onset there</p><p class="line">Nations to battle stream;</p><p class="line">Earth smokes and cities burn;</p><p class="line">Heaven thickens in a storm of shells that scream;</p><p class="line">The long lines shattering break, turn and again return;</p><p class="line">And still across a continent they teem,</p><p class="line">Moving in myriads; more</p><p class="line">Than ranks of flesh and blood, but soul with soul at war!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="subhead">IV.</p><p class="line">All the hells are awake: the old serpents hiss</p><p class="line">From dungeons of the mind;</p><p class="line">Fury of hate born blind,</p><p class="line">Madness and lust, despairs and treacheries unclean;</p><p class="line">They shudder up from man's most dark abyss.</p><p class="line">But there are heavens serene</p><p class="line">That answer strength with strength; they stand secure;</p><p class="line">They arm us from within, and we endure.</p><p class="line">Now are the brave more brave,</p><p class="line">Now is the cause more dear,</p><p class="line">The more the tempests of the darkness rave,</p><p class="line">As, when the sun goes down, the shining stars are clear.</p><p class="line">Radiant the spirit rushes to the grave.</p><p class="line">Glorious it is to live</p><p class="line">In such an hour, but life is lovelier yet to give.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="subhead">V.</p><p class="line">Alas! what comfort for the uncomforted,</p><p class="line">Who knew no cause, nor sought</p><p class="line">Glory or gain? they are taught,</p><p class="line">Homeless in homes that burn, what human hearts can bear.</p><p class="line">The children stumble over their dear dead,</p><p class="line">Wandering they know not where.</p><p class="line">And there is one who simply fights, obeys,</p><p class="line">Tramps, till he loses count of nights and days,</p><p class="line">Tired, mired in dust and sweat,</p><p class="line">Far from his own hearthstone;</p><p class="line">A common man of common earth, and yet</p><p class="line">The battle-winner he, a man of no renown,</p><p class="line">Where food for cannon pays a nation's debt.</p><p class="line">This is Earth's hero, whom</p><p class="line">The pride of Empire tosses careless to his doom.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="subhead">VI.</p><p class="line">Now will we speak, while we have eyes for tears</p><p class="line">And fibres to be wrung</p><p class="line">And in our mouths a tongue.</p><p class="line">We will bear wrongs untold, but will not only bear;</p><p class="line">Not only bear, but build through striving years</p><p class="line">The answer of our prayer,</p><p class="line">That whosoever has the noble name</p><p class="line">Of man shall not be yoked to alien shame;</p><p class="line">That life shall be indeed</p><p class="line">Life, not permitted breath</p><p class="line">Of spirits wrenched and forced to other's need,</p><p class="line">Robbed of their nature's joy and free alone in death.</p><p class="line">The world shall travail in that cause, shall bleed;</p><p class="line">But deep in hope it dwells</p><p class="line">Until the morning break which the long night foretells.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="subhead">VII.</p><p class="line">O children, filled with your own airy glee,</p><p class="line">Or with a grief that comes</p><p class="line">So swift, so strange, it numbs,</p><p class="line">If on your growing youth this page of terror bite,</p><p class="line">Harden not then your senses, feel and be</p><p class="line">The promise of the light.</p><p class="line">O heirs of Man, keep in your hearts not less</p><p class="line">The divine torrents of his tenderness!</p><p class="line">'Tis ever war; but rust</p><p class="line">Grows on the sword; the tale</p><p class="line">Of earth is strewn with empires heaped in dust</p><p class="line">Because they dreamed that force should punish and prevail.</p><p class="line">The will to kindness lives beyond their lust;</p><p class="line">Their grandeurs are undone:</p><p class="line">Deep, deep within man's soul are all his victories won.</p></div><p class="byline">LAURENCE BINYON.<br xmlns:exist="http://exist.sourceforge.net/NS/exist" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"/> Fortnightly Review.</p></body></html> · Great War