wreath when intertwined,
     This cherishable France she may redeem. 
     Beloved of Earth, her heart should feel at length
     How much unto Earth’s offspring it doth owe. 
     Obstructions are for levelling, have we strength;
     ’Tis poverty of soul conceived a foe. 
     Rejected be the wrath that keeps unhealed
     Her panting wound; to higher Courts appealed
     The wrongs discerned of higher:  Europe waits: 
     She chooses God or gambles with the Fates. 
     Shines the new Helen in Alsace-Lorraine,
     A darker river severs Rhine and Rhone,
     Is heard a deadlier Epic of the twain;
     We see a Paris burn
     Or France Napoleon.

     For yet he breathes whom less her heart forswears
     While trembles its desire to thwart her mind: 
     The Tyrant lives in Victory’s return. 
     What figure with recurrent footstep fares
     Around those memoried tracks of scarlet mud,
     To sow her future from an ashen urn
     By lantern-light, as dragons’ teeth are sown? 
     Of bleeding pride the piercing seer is blind. 
     But, cleared her eyes of that ensanguined scud
     Distorting her true features, to be shown
     Benignly luminous, one who bears
     Humanity at breast, and she might learn
     How surely the excelling generous find
     Renouncement is possession.  Sure
     As light enkindles light when heavenly earthly mates,
     The flame of pure immits the flame of pure,
     Magnanimous magnanimous creates. 
     So to majestic beauty stricken rears
     Hard-visaged rock against the risen glow;
     And men are in the secret with the spheres,
     Whose glory is celestially to bestow.

     Now nation looks to nation, that may live
     Their common nurseling, like the torrent’s flower,
     Shaken by foul Destruction’s fast-piled heap. 
     On France is laid the proud initiative
     Of sacrifice in one self-mastering hour,
     Whereby more than her lost one will she reap;
     Perchance the very lost regain,
     To count it less than her superb reward. 
     Our Europe, where is debtor each to each,
     Pass measure of excess, and war is Cain,
     Fraternal from the Seaman’s beach,
     From answering Rhine in grand accord,
     From Neva beneath Northern cloud,
     And from our Transatlantic Europe loud,
     Will hail the rare example for their theme;
     Give response, as rich foliage to the breeze;
     In their entrusted nurseling know them one: 
     Like a brave vessel under press of steam,
     Abreast the winds and tides, on angry seas,
     Plucked by the heavens forlorn of present sun,
     Will drive through darkness, and, with faith supreme,
     Have sight of haven and the crowded quays.

     The Cageing of Ares

     [Iliad, v.  V. 385—­Dedicated to the Council at The Hague.]