We are the dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe! To you from failing hands we throw The torch. Be yours to lift it high! If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, tho poppies blow In Flanders fields. America's Answer By R. W. Lillard Rest ye in peace, ye Flanders dead! The fight that ye so bravely led We've taken up! And we will keep True faith with you who lie asleep, With each a cross to mark his bed, And poppies blowing overhead Where once his own life blood ran red! So let your rest be sweet and deep In Flanders fields! Fear not that ye have died for naught, The torch ye threw to us we caught! Ten million hands will hold it high, And Freedom's light shall never die! We've learned the lesson that ye taught In Flanders fields! Recessional By Richard Linthicum I The tide is at the ebb, as if to mark Our turning backward from the guiding light; Grotesque, uncertain shapes infest the dark And wings of bats are heard in aimless flight; Discordant voices cry and serpents hiss, No friendly star, no beacon's beckoning ray; We follow, all forsworn, with steps amiss, Envy and Malice on an unknown way. But he who bore the light in night of war, Swiftly and surely and without surcease, Where other light was not, save one red star, Treads now, as then, the certain path to peace; Wounded, denied, but radiant of soul, Steadfast in honor, marches toward the goal. II The spirit that was Peace seems but a wraith, The glory that was ours seems but a name, And like a rotten reed our broken faith, Our boasted virtue turned to scarlet shame By the low, envious lust of party power; While he upon the heights whence he had led, Deserted and betrayed in victory's hour, Still wears a victor's wreath on unbowed head. The Nation gropes--his rule is at an end, Immortal man of the transcendent mind, Light-bearer of the world, the loving friend Of little peoples, servant of mankind! O land of mine! how long till you atone? How long to stand dishonored and alone? _To Woodrow Wilson, March 4, 1921._ [Illustration: THE FOUNDERS OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS BALDRIDGE IN _Stars and Stripes_ Make firm, O God, the peace our dead have won, For folly shakes the tinsel on her head And points us back to darkness and to hell, Cackling, "Beware of Visions," while our dead Still cry, "It was for visions that we fell." --Alfred Noyes] _Workmen's Compensation_