Classic Poem

It is thine hour, America.
No word but thine can lift this curse;
It is thy moment to fulfill
Thine errand in the universe,
Ambassador of that great Will
That herds and holds the stars in space
And guides the human race.
Speakest of precedent or creed
When higher forces urge thy fate?
All man-made edicts, soon or late,
Must yield before the larger need
That spells the future's right.
Be thine the hand to lift the light,
Be thine the arm to strike the blow
That severs human hate from hate;
Be thine the word to start the flow
Of sympathy and brotherhood
That makes the future's good.
Here in this crisis of the world,
When strength on stubborn strength is hurled,
When thou and thy desires should be
The utterance of liberty,
Lo, thou art blinded with the rest,
And blood is bright upon thy hands
And bitter on thy breast.
Yea, all have sinned, America,
We, too, are slayers of the slain;
Our crime as quick, our wrong as red
As that which shamed the Master's head
And mocked the Master's pain.
And thinkest thou thy prayer avails
Because thou did'st not draw the sword?
The scaffolding thou did'st not make,
And thine was not the word which spake
To crucify the Lord?
America, thy protest fails.
From out the gloom His figure stands,
And lo! 'Tis thou hast shaped the nails
That pierce the Saviour's hands.
Out of this hell of blood and wrath,
This whirlpool of a world's despair,
There breaks no day, there leads no path,
Unless thy people dare.
Fail not, fail not, my motherland!
A world is waiting on thy choice.
Be thou that strong, triumphant state,
Who dares to be immaculate.
Who dares to lift the human cause
Above the cant of minor laws.
Be thou that great, enduring Voice
To speak the most majestic word
By nations ever heard.
America, I see thy goal;
I see thy high, resplendent soul
A torch upon the Future's gate
For those who plead and wait.
From out the thunder of that hill,
Where the sad Christ is bleeding still;
From out the terror and the rage,
The anguish of our stricken age,
Humanity beseeches thee:
“Be thou the saviour of all lands;
Wash thou the stain from off thy hands
And set the nations free!”