THREE POLITICAL SONNETS
On the theme that war "attains no valuable end."
"War attains no end." So we are told. This pleasing lie is heard in one loud bleat From sheep to sheep wherever men repeat Unthinking what they hear. So sheep are sold To peaceful slaughter. Were they fierce and bold As those who kill them, were they armed to treat As they are treated then they would be great Like men, rule earth, and cast its future mould. Earth is a battlefield where modes of life Fight to prevail by reason, force and love. Can men be merely peaceful, passive as sheep Who neither kill nor reason? Or is strife Love's other Face, twin-spirit, Hate's dark Dove From Heaven descended, brooding on chaos deep?
On the theme of those who love themselves.
If I may be excused a private hate It is of those who let their country down. Whether self-love or love so over-grown As to be objectless and without date Be theirs it seems they'll not participate Except in what's invisible and unknown: Utopia at large! No country and no town Exists for them, they love the Perfect State. This is the:r lie. It is themselves they love, For he who loves perfection loves its shade And fallen substance. In his heart he keeps Undying hope, his land the Sacred Grove Wherein he builds and worships, cuts the blade Sown by his fathers, plants but also reaps.
On the theme of Patriotism.
The world that needs just men needs brigands too,
They have their right, their function and their task Which is to pull from Justice its dead mask That men may not be caged as in a zoo, And barred by their own principles. 'Tis true That suddenly uncaged men do not bask In freedom's sunshine but do straightway ask For tighter bonds, fearful of what they'll do.
Therefore 'tis found they never can be free Save in their own tradition, slowly won, And formulated loosely ; not a creed But a mixed struggling instinct that can be Ever renewed and widened. This is the Sun Warms nations to their life in song and deed.
W. J. TURNER- Postage on this issue : Inland and Overseas, rd.
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