I Come Singing

TWO SONNETS

I COME SINGING

Youth Answers the Call

Not with the fear or the hot, swift fever of war,

But with the calm, sure courage of the right

I come-singing of youth's far-visioned sight,

The dreams of youth so well worth dying for.

Not with the dread of one who finds no more

Than the guns' rumble and the bloody fight,

And ruin and the long sleep under the night:

Adventure lures me like an open door!

I come as one who has found glorious waking

And goes supremely girded to the foe,

Knowing my songs have power to lay him low.

I come as one upon whose lips are breaking

Snatches of melodies beyond unmaking,

And in whose soul unalterable rhythms flow.