The Youth and War

She said, “I will hide all the brave books away from him,
With their scarlet letters that burn into the heart;
I will lock their spell and their sovereign sway from him;
I will rear him tenderly, a life apart.”
But the day came and the hour came,
And the foul deed struck him like a spur;
And he felt the shame and the swift flame,
And his eyes were strange to her.

In the dreams of the night had the old Captains come to him,
And the staunch old Admirals that died long ago;
From the old fields of fight came the roll of the drum to him,
With a call that his mother could not know;
It seemed that a Sword gleamed blinding-bright
At the dawn-edge of the sky;
And he said, “O Mother, the Right is the Right:
I must fight for it now though I die!”