CARRY ON!
By VIRNA SHEARD
PUBLISHED UNDER THE DISTINGUISHED
PATRONAGE OF THE IMPERIAL ORDER
OF THE DAUGHTERS OF THE
EMPIRE IN AID OF THE
RED CROSS
TORONTO:
WARWICK BROS. & RUTTER, LIMITED
1917
COPYRIGHT, CANADA, 1917
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We acknowledge with thanks the kindness of The Globe, Toronto, forpermission to use Carry On, The Young Knights, The Watcher, OctoberGoes, Dreams, The Cry, A War Chant, To One Who Sleeps, The Requiem andThe Lament, to Saturday Night, Toronto, for permission to use Beforethe Dawn, and to The Canadian Magazine for permission to use WhenJonquils Blow. The other poems have not hitherto been published.
CONTENTS
Carry On
The Young Knights
The Shells
The Watcher
October Goes
Dreams
Before the Dawn
Crosses
The Cry
A War Chant
When Jonquils Blow
To One Who Sleeps
The Sea
Comrades
Requiem
Lament
That all freedom may abide
Carry on!
For the brave who fought and died,
Carry on!
England's flag so long adored
Is the banner of the Lord—
His the cannon—His the sword—
Carry on, and on! Carry on!
Through the night of death and tears,
Carry on!
Through the hour that scars and sears,
Carry on!
Legions in the flame-torn sky,—
Armies that go reeling by,—
Only once can each man die;
Carry on!
For the things you count the best,
Carry on!
Take love with you,—leave the rest—
Carry on!
Though the fight be short or long,
Men of ours—O dear and strong—
Yours will be the Victor's song,
Carry on—and on! Carry on!
Now they remain to us forever young
Who with such splendor gave their youth away;
Perpetual Spring is their inheritance,
Though they have lived in Flanders and in France
A round of years, in one remembered day.
They drained life's goblet as a joyous draught
And left within the cup no bitter lees.
Sweetly they answered to the King's behest,
And gallantly fared forth upon a quest,
Beset by foes on land and on the seas.
So in the ancient world hath bloomed again
The rose of old romance—red as of yore;