  (Political morality differs from individual morality, because there is no power above the State.—General von Bernhardi) Shadow by shadow, stripped for fight The lean black cruisers search the sea. Night-long their level shafts of light Revolve, and find no enemy. Only they know each leaping wave And in the land they guard so well Is there no silent watch to keep? An age is dying, and the bell Rings midnight on a vaster deep. But over all its waves, once more, The searchlights move, from shore to shore. And captains that we thought were dead, And dreamers that we thought were dumb, And voices that we thought were fled, Arise, and call us, and we come: And "search in thine own soul", they cry; "For there, too, lurks thine enemy". Search for the foe in thine own soul, The sloth, the intellectual pride; The trivial jest that veils the goal For which our fathers lived and died; The lawless dreams, the cynic Art, That rend thy nobler self apart. Not far, not far into the night, These level swords of light can pierce; Yet for her faith does England fight, Her faith in this our universe, Believing Truth and Justice draw The law that rules the stars, our stay, Our compass through the world's wide sea, The one sure light, the one sure way, The one firm base of Liberty; The one firm road that men have trod Through Chaos to the throne of God. Therefore a Power above the State, The unconquerable Power returns. The fire, the fire that made her great Once more upon her altar burns. Once more, redeemed, and healed and whole, She moves to the Eternal Goal. Alfred Noyes Reprinted by permission from the "Lord of Misrule", by Alfred Noyes. Copyright, 1915, by Frederick A. Stokes Company |
|
