DUTY.
CALL, and I follow, power unknown ; Thy summons has a sovereign tone, As trumpet stern in morning air To bid to duties fresh repair, Or bugle soft, with evening dew, To cleanse and fortify anew.
Call, and I follow ; peace or war, I care not what thy mandates are : In peace, 'tis somewhere bliss to find A stay for the unstable mind; And 'tis in power of war alone To strike at once the master-tone ; To break the spell, to breathe the word More trenchant than a warrior's sword, With might the dastard doubt to slay, And cut the sophistry away ; Till out of ease, and evil fire, The witcheries of low desire, Refashioned on a loftier plan, Springs from the grave an altered man.
Call, and I follow, power unseen ; Thou dost not ask what I have been ; How little worthy of the prize, How all unmeet for sacrifice ; Nor ask I what thou hast in store Of wavering balance, less or more; What thrill of pleasure, throb of pain, Or nearer loss, or distant gain.
For, mighty Voice, we cannot see What is the end of following thee ; The laurel-wreath, the triumph-crown, The hero's rapture of renown ; Or struck to death beneath the wall Unseen, unknown, unwept, to fall ; Contented yet in dying ear The victors' shout aloft to hear; And feel, they had not climbed so high But o'er our mortal agony.
Call, and we follow. Cold and bare, How is it that thou art so fair ?
While softer beauties leave us tame, How dost thou set our blood aflame ?
And call us from the flattering crowd, The maddening shout, the plaudit load, The laugh, the lights, the flowers that shine, The revel, and the untasted wine, Alone, apart, with thee to win A solitary joy within ; The joy, from sources past our ken, Of sternest souls, and strongest men ?
O mightiest Voice, 'tis that in thee We join a nobler company; And with them trust thy call to find No empty figment of the mind, But echo, in unearthly tone, Of lips divine in worlds unknown.
'Tis that beneath thy poor disguise We read a wanderer of the skies, Whose broken utterance, faint and rare, Is common-tongue of angels there.
And once it happened as we went Companioned with a sweet content, Listening to hear thy music strange, Our very being seemed to change, The veil of flesh to fall away, The eye to see a purer day ; Another form beside us trod, We knew thee, Duty, power of God.
A. G. B.
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