Michael Villiers, Idealist :: :: University of Virginia Library

‘The world has grown too wise for patriotism!’
Said a young beardless, narrow-shouldered man,
Bred on a lustre or two of narrow thought
Which deemed itself the broadest of the day:
He called himself a cosmopolitan.

And Michael Villiers smiled, and answered him;
‘Perhaps! then let us be behind our time;
A whit more foolish than our fellows are;
And love the land that bore us best of all!’

What do we owe our country,
O brothers, say?
To turn our backs upon her
In scorn; or pay
The easy and empty homage
Of lips to-day?

‘What do we owe the country
That gave us breath?
To watch her struggling sorely
For life, for death,
Nor give her the quickening comfort
That comforteth?

‘Our mother-land that bare us,
Her face is set
Steadfastly toward the winning
Of freedom yet;
Her heart is strong, though her eyelids
With tears be wet.

‘The highest gift is freedom,
And holiest too;
Who claims that a slave be noble,
A serf be true?
Who asks of the fettered bondman
To dare and do?

‘Freedom to work for the people
Whose kin we are;
Freedom to be lawmakers
To make, not mar;
Freedom to be lawkeepers,
With never a bar.

‘What is a sect or a party
To those who love?
Let us take hands, O brothers,
And surely prove
True hearts, mankind's and country's,
Nothing shall move.

‘Each of us servant of others,
Servant of all;
So shall he be for ever
Nor slave nor thrall;
So shall no force o'ercome him,
Whate'er befall.

‘On, together, together,
By one love bound;
On through the sea and the desert,
To holy ground
Where the light that slays the darkness
For aye is found.’