Baring his sunburnt strength to all the world, He casts his eyes abroad with Jovian glance— Searches the tracks of old Tradition; scans With rebel heart the Book of Pedigree; Peers into the face of Privilege and cries, “Why are you halting in the path of man? Is it your shoulder bears the human load? Do you draw down the rains of the sweet heaven, And keep the green things growing? Back to hell!” God is descending from eternity, And all things, good and evil, build the road. Yea, down in the thick of things, the men of greed Are thumping the inhospitable clay. By wondrous toils the men without the Dream, Led onward by a something unawares, Are laying the foundations of the Dream, The Kingdom of Fraternity foretold. The Need of the Hour Fling forth the triple-colored flag to dare The bright, untraveled highways of the air. Blow the undaunted bugles, blow, and yet Let not the boast betray us to forget. Lo, there are high adventures for this hour— Tourneys to test the sinews of our power. For we must parry—as the years increase— The hazards of success, the risks of peace! What do we need to keep the nation whole, To guard the pillars of the State? We need The fine audacities of honest deed; The homely old integrities of soul; The swift temerities that take the part Of outcast right—the wisdom of the heart; Brave hopes that Mammon never can detain, Nor sully with his gainless clutch for gain. We need the Cromwell fire to make us feel The common burden and the public trust To be a thing as sacred and august As the white vigil where the angels kneel. We need the faith to go a path untrod, The power to be alone and vote with God. The Lizard I sit among the hoary trees With Aristotle on my knees, And turn with serious hand the pages, Lost in the cobweb-hush of ages; When suddenly with no more sound Than any sunbeam on the ground, The little hermit of the place Is peering up into my face— The slim gray hermit of the rocks, With bright inquisitive, quick eyes, His life a round of harks and shocks, A little ripple of surprise.