Rudyard Kipling

For All We Have and Are

For all we have and are,

For all our children's fate,

Stand up and meet the war.

The Hun is at the gate!

Our world has passed away

In wantonness o'erthrown.

There is nothing left to-day

But steel and fire and stone.

 

Though all we knew depart,

The old commandments stand:

"In courage keep your heart,

In strength lift up your hand."

 

Once more we hear the word

That sickened earth of old:

"No law except the sword

Unsheathed and uncontrolled,"

Once more it knits mankind,

Once more the nations go

To meet and break and bind

A crazed and driven foe.