HumanitiesWeb.org - Editor's Selection of Poems (A Call to National Service) by Thomas Hardy
HumanitiesWeb HumanitiesWeb
WelcomeHistoryLiteratureArtMusicPhilosophyResourcesHelp
Periods Alphabetically Nationality Topics Themes Genres Glossary
pixel
Hardy
Index
Biography
Selected Works
Quotations
According To...
Suggested Reading
Other Resources
Chronology
Related Materials

Search

& etc
FEEDBACK

(C)1998-2012
All Rights Reserved.

Site last updated
13 January, 2012

Editor's Selection of Poems
A Call to National Service

by Thomas Hardy

Up and be doing, all who have a hand
To lift, a back to bend.  It must not be
In times like these that vaguely linger we
To air our vaunts and hopes; and leave our land

Untended as a wild of weeds and sand.
- Say, then, "I come!" and go, O women and men
Of palace, ploughshare, easel, counter, pen;
That scareless, scathless, England still may stand.

Would years but let me stir as once I stirred
At many a dawn to take the forward track,
And with a stride plunged on to enterprize,

I now would speed like yester wind that whirred
Through yielding pines; and serve with never a slack,
So loud for promptness all around outcries!

March 1917.
Personae

Terms Defined

Referenced Works