The Martyrs' Idyl, and Shorter Poems

THE RECRUIT

SO much to me is imminent:

To leave Revolt that is my tent,

And Failure, chosen for my bride,

And into life’s highway be gone,
Ere yet Creation marches on,
Obedient, jocund, glorified;

And last of things afoot, to know
How to be free is still to go
With glad concession, grave accord,

Nor longer, bond and imbecile,
Stand out against the gradual Will,
The guessed Fall in! of God the Lord.

The Martyrs’ Idyl first came out in the Christmas
number, 1898, of Harper’s Magazine. With
the exception of that, of three poems taken from
“England and Yesterday” (Grant Richards, London),
and of one other, the contents of this volume
appeared prior to 1896 in Harper’s, The
Century, The Cosmopolitan, The Independent,
The Chap-Book, etc., to
all of which thanks are due
for the courteous permission
to reprint.

ELECTROTYPED AND PRINTED
BY H. O. HOUGHTON AND CO.

The Riverside Press

CAMBRIDGE, MASS., U. S. A.

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