Cloyd Head

From “War Sequence”

AMERICA …

Can it be, my country, that in you

The dream men dared not dream, is true?

I know not what the old men seek:

Youth!—steadily tramping, eight abreast,

The Rainbow Division, “Pershing’s Crusaders”—marching

Past the arcades of the Rue de Rivoli:

They go to defense of unknown Picardy.

The black-garbed throng and the men in olive-drab, passing;

The acclaim and—deeper still for those who hear—the song

Of silent voices, rising; the birth of a new music in the world,

Brought by the men of many nations

Come from a new home wrought in a new-máde land.

O France, again the debt—but this debt greater;

For to us you bring, after yourself have bled,

The will to suffering—not in a selfish cause.

I know not what the old men seek:

Never to them, always to Youth, you speak,

By being—France!

We come, youth of America, youth dedicate!—

A nation among nations, humble before the hope

Of freedom, proudly to create

Our own tradition there—in Picardy.