They unwound and flung from them with rage, as a rag that defiled them

The imperial gains of the age which their forefathers piled them.

They ran panting in haste to lay waste and embitter

for ever

The wellsprings of Wisdom and Strength which are Faith and Endeavour.

They nosed out and digged up and dragged forth and exposed to derision

All doctrine of purpose and worth and restraint and prevision:

And it ceased, and God granted them all things for which they had striven,

And the heart of a beast in the place of a man's heart was given.

When they were fullest of wine and most flagrant in

error,

Out of the sea rose a sign-out of Heaven a terror. Then they saw, then they heard, then they knewfor none troubled to hide it,

An host had prepared their destruction, but still they denied it.

They denied what they dared not abide if it came to the trial,

But the Sword that was forged while they lied did not heed their denial.

It drove home, and no time was allowed to the crowd that was driven.

The preposterous-minded were cowed-they thought time would be given.

'THE CITY OF BRASS'

There was no need of a steed nor a lance to pursue

them;

It was decreed their own deed, and not chance, should undo them.

The tares they had laughingly sown were ripe to the reaping,

The trust they had leagued to disown was removed from their keeping.

The eaters of other men's bread, the exempted from hardship,

The excusers of impotence fled, abdicating their ward

ship.

For the hate they had taught through the State brought the State no defender,

And it passed from the roll of the Nations in headlong surrender!

A

JUSTICE

OCTOBER, 1918

CROSS a world where all men grieve
And grieving strive the more,

The great days range like tides and leave Our dead on every shore.

Heavy the load we undergo,

And our own hands prepare, If we have parley with the foe, The load our sons must bear.

Before we loose the word

That bids new worlds to birth,

Needs must we loosen first the sword

Of Justice upon earth;

Or else all else is vain

Since life on earth began,

And the spent world sinks back again
Hopeless of God and Man.

A people and their King

Through ancient sin grown strong, Because they feared no reckoning Would set no bound to wrong;

JUSTICE

But now their hour is past,
And we who bore it find
Evil Incarnate held at last
To answer to mankind.

For agony and spoil

Of nations beat to dust,

For poisoned air and tortured soil
And cold, commanded lust,

And every secret woe

The shuddering waters saw

Willed and fulfilled by high and lowLet them relearn the Law.

That when the dooms are read,
Not high nor low shall say:-
'My haughty or my humble head
Has saved me in this day.'

That, till the end of time,

Their remnant shall recall

Their fathers' old, confederate crime

Availed them not at all.

That neither schools nor priests,
Nor Kings may build again
A people with the heart of beasts
Made wise concerning men.
Whereby our dead shall sleep
In honour, unbetrayed,

And we in faith and honour keep

That peace for which they paid.