Poem: “Never or Now” by Oliver Wendell Holmes

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American Literature – American Poetry – Oliver Wendell Holmes – Poems by Oliver Wendell Holmes
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Never or Now

Listen, young heroes! your country is calling!
  Time strikes the hour for the brave and the true!
Now, while the foremost are fighting and falling,
  Fill up the ranks that have opened for you!

You whom the fathers made free and defended,
  Stain not the scroll that emblazons their fame!
You whose fair heritage spotless descended,
  Leave not your children a birthright of shame!

Stay not for questions while Freedom stands gasping!
  Wait not till Honor lies wrapped in his pall!
Brief the lips’ meeting be, swift the hands’ clasping,—
  “Off for the wars!” is enough for them all!

Break from the arms that would fondly caress you!
  Hark! ’tis the bugle-blast, sabres are drawn!
Mothers shall pray for you, fathers shall bless you,
  Maidens shall weep for you when you are gone!

Never or now! cries the blood of a nation,
  Poured on the turf where the red rose should bloom;
Now is the day and the hour of salvation,—
  Never or now! peals the trumpet of doom!

Never or now! roars the hoarse-throated cannon
  Through the black canopy blotting the skies;
Never or now! flaps the shell-blasted pennon
  O’er the deep ooze where the Cumberland lies!

From the foul dens where our brothers are dying,
  Aliens and foes in the land of their birth,—
From the rank swamps where our martyrs are lying
  Pleading in vain for a handful of earth,—

From the hot plains where they perish outnumbered,
  Furrowed and ridged by the battle-field’s plough,
Comes the loud summons; too long you have slumbered,
  Hear the last Angel-trump,—Never or Now!

< < < Union and Liberty
To My Readers > > >

American Literature – American Poetry – Oliver Wendell Holmes – Poems by Oliver Wendell Holmes

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