their homes to labour flitting, Knitting, knitting, Busy handed come and go. Broken bits of time they spare, Just to feel they do their share, Just to keep life’s sense of beauty In the doing of a duty, They are knitting, knitting, knitting For the soldiers over there.

p. 7

p. 8MOBILISATION

p. 8

Oh the Kings of earth have mobilised their men. See them moving, valour proving, To the fields of glory going, Banners flowing, bugles blowing, Every one a mother’s son, Brave with uniform and gun, Keeping step with easy swing, Yes, with easy step and light marching onward to the fight, Just to please the warlike fancy of a King; Who has mobilised his army for the strife.

Oh the King of Death has mobilised his men. See the hearses huge and black How they rumble down the track; With their coffins filled with dead, Filled with men who fought and bled; p. 9Now from fields of glory coming To the sound of muffled drumming They are lying still and white, But the Kings have had their fight; Death has mobilised his army for the grave.

p. 9

p. 10NEUTRAL

p. 10

That pale word ‘Neutral’ sits becomingly On lips of weaklings. But the men whose brains Find fuel in their blood, the men whose minds Hold sympathetic converse with their hearts, Such men are never neutral. That word stands Unsexed and impotent in Realms of Speech. When mighty problems face a startled world No virile man is neutral. Right or wrong His thoughts go forth, assertive, unafraid To stand by his convictions, and to do Their part in shaping issues to an end. Silence may guard the door of useless words, At dictate of Discretion; but to stand Without opinions in a world which needs Constructive thinking, is a coward’s part.

p. 11A BOOK FOR THE KING

p. 11

A book has been made for the King, A book of beauty and art; To the good king’s eyes A smile shall rise Hiding the ache in his heart— Hiding the hurt and the grief As he turns it, leaf by leaf.

A book has been made for the King, A book of blood and of blight; To the Great King’s eyes A look shall rise That will blast and wither and smite— Yes, smite with a just God’s rage, As He turns it, page by page.

p. 12THE MEN-MADE GODS

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