Alice Meynell

To Conscripts

 "Compel them to come in." — ST. LUKE'S GOSPEL

You "made a virtue of necessity"
    By divine sanction; you, the loth, the grey,
The random, gentle, unconvinced; O be
    The crowned!—you may, you may.

You, the compelled, be feasted! You, the caught,
    Be freemen of the gates that word unlocks!
Accept your victory from that unsought,
    That heavenly paradox.