[Two illustrations cover the time span of the poem. The first illustration’s foreground has a boy facing the viewer, walking along a neighborhood street, and approaching a small, sitting dog whose back faces the viewer. The street bends right and into the background past homes and a few neighbors looking in the boy’s direction. A church steeple is prominent above the homes and trees. The second illustration has the same viewpoint of the neighborhood. People line the side of the street, their backs to the viewer, as a troop formation carrying an American flag parades towards the viewer.] Let Us Be Right (1919) Let us be right, though all the world may follow The broken fabric of some failing dream. As sounds upon our ears its outcry hollow, And men lose all for some deceiving scheme, Let us forsake the gold and tinsel masking, And live for things enduring and secure. Whate’er the prize the idle crowd is asking, Let us be right. The path of truth is sure. Let us be right, whatever seem our losing, Some day the tide will turn, and men will know The thing abiding. Then the common choosing Will be the substance, not the empty show. Let us be right. When self’s poor plans are shattered And all the castles lifted mountain high By evil hand, are broken down and shattered, The right shall stand beneath the mighty sky. Light and Shadow (1919) A BIT of sunshine and a bit of shadow, And each succeeds the other on the screen. They chase each other over hill and meadow, Alternate triumph through each act and scene. The smile and tear has each in turn its season, The right and wrong their coronation day, And foolishness contends for place with reason --such is a play. A bit of gladness and a bit of sighing, A warm sun’s beaming and the cloudland’s chill Each comes and goes the while the day is dying From western hill to farther western hill. So runs the tale as passing years grow hoary; So will it be forever and for aye. A bit of sorrow and a touch of glory --such is a day. The New Day (1919) Put up your guns, ye nations, and lay your swords away. Forget the roar of battle ye heard but yesterday. Forget the vanished era of autocrats and kings And turn to face a future of better, finer things. We strung our rows of crosses on Flanders’ flow’ry plains. We touched the fields of Europe with our hearts’ reddest stains. We walked the shadowed valley: we felt its deadly chill. Some lingered on its bosom with voice forever still. Among the wreck of empires, the dreams of yesterday. Built on self’s foundations (the dreamers: where are they?). We face a dawning future upon a shattered earth. ’Twill be as we shall make it--a thing of threat or worth. O ye returning manhood, baptized in battle flame, Ye who have fought for honor and saved the world from shame, Ye who have stood for justice beyond the mighty seas, Come to the task awaiting on battlefields of peace.