OH hear! Oh hear! Across the sullen tide Across the echoing dome horizon-wide What pulse of fear Beats with tremendous boom? What call of instant doom, With thunderstroke of terror and of pride, With urgency that may not be denied, Reverberates upon the heart's own drum Come!... Come! ... for thou must come! Come forth, O Soul! This is thy day of power. This is the day and this the glorious hour That was the goal Of thy self-conquering strife. The love of child and wife, The fields of Earth and the wide ways of Thought— Did not thy purpose count them all as nought That in this moment thou thyself mayst give And in thy country's life for ever live? Therefore rejoice That in thy passionate prime Youth's nobler hope disdained the spoils of Time And thine own choice Fore-earned for thee this day. Rejoice! rejoice to obey In the great hour of life that men call Death The beat that bids thee draw heroic breath, Deep-throbbing till thy mortal heart be dumb Come! ... Come! ... the time is come! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE SMILING MOUTH by CHARLES D'ORLEANS DARKNESS IS THINNING by GREGORY I THE LADY OF SHALOTT by ALFRED TENNYSON THE ARGO'S CHANTY by WILLIAM ROSE BENET THE MAID OF ARC; FOR M. S. M. by GORDON BOTTOMLEY L'INDIFFERENT; WATTEAU; THE LOUVRE by KATHERINE HARRIS BRADLEY |