To the Allied Arms
By George Sterling
Where children slept, gun answers unto gun;
Where peace was on the orchards, armies fight;
Now burst, on vale and devastated height,
The tides that raven and the seas that stun.
Yet wage ye now the battles of the sun
And with a holy ray your flags are bright,
Tho deep on Europe lies the two-fold night
Of pain's despair and death's oblivion.
More clear, more terrible, the days reveal
What foe is yours, and how malignly vast
The horror and betrayal of its plan—
That tyranny which rears its crest of steel
To blot the Future's blue, a shadow cast
By Hell's red star on Liberty and Man.
Bibliography Entry