Louisa Sarah Bevington

* * *

"Dreamers?" Ah, no! else he was a dreamer,
    Our crucified brother of long, long ago;
Arrested, and jeered at; "seditious;" "blasphemer;"
    And legally slain, lest the people should know

Offence against privileged, orthodox "order,"
    That stirring of crowds by the straight word and true;
No wonder respectable Dives condemned him,
    And politic Roman, and clerical Jew.

Remember the agonised cry of desertion
    Lest haply the whole had been suffered in vain;
Ah! would he could know of this tardy awakening
    Of Peoples at last, as the message grows plain.

That "Kingdom" is coming, on earth as "within you,"
    The reign of sweet peace, and goodwill amongst men;
'Tis suffering violence? Yes, in the taking;
    Yet, taken, there shall not be fighting again.

Dear comrades, hold on, 'mid reproach and derision,
    To rid the old world of its thraldom and woe;
And still in the pauses of conflict remember
    That lone one, our comrade of long, long ago.