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Draw The Sword, O Republic!

by Edgar Lee Masters

By the blue sky of a clear vision,

And by the white light of a great illumination,

And by the blood-red of brotherhood,

Draw the sword, O Republic!

Draw the sword!

For the light which is England,

And the resurrection which is Russia,

And the sorrow which is France,

And for peoples everywhere

Crying in bondage,

And in poverty!

You have been a leaven in the earth, O Republic!

And a watch-fire on the hill-top scattering sparks;

And an eagle clanging his wings on a cloud-wrapped promontory:

Now the leaven must be stirred,

And the brands themselves carried and touched

To the jungles and the black-forests.

Now the eaglets are grown, they are calling,

They are crying to each other from the peaks -

They are flapping their passionate wings in the sunlight,

Eager for battle!

As a strong man nurses his youth

To the day of trial;

But as a strong man nurses it no more

On the day of trial,

But exults and cries: For Victory, O Strength!

And for the glory of my City, O treasured youth!

You shall neither save your youth,

Nor hoard your strength

Beyond this hour, O Republic!

For you have sworn

By the passion of the Gaul,

And the strength of the Teuton,

And the will of the Saxon,

And the hunger of the Poor,

That the white man shall lie down by the black man,

And by the yellow man,

And all men shall be one spirit, as they are one flesh,

Through Wisdom, Liberty and Democracy.

And forasmuch as the earth cannot hold

Aught beside them,

You have dedicated the earth, O Republic,

To Wisdom, Liberty and Democracy!

By the Power that drives the soul to Freedom,

And by the Power that makes us love our fellows,

And by the Power that comforts us in death,

Dying for great races to come -

Draw the sword, O Republic!

Draw the Sword!