Louisa Sarah Bevington

Peace on Earth

Peace on our earth! Men reconciled
    To Law that bids them be;
O holy freedom! final faith!
    O sacred certainty!
I sometimes think the road to it
    Lies through Gethsemane.

And yet the young are with us too,
    Bold from the very first;
Dear lads and maidens full of will
    The golden cage to burst;
Alert to note the living springs
    That slake the whole world's thirst.

The very goal we touch at last,
    The haven of the free;
Ah, comrades! you who understand,
    Sing in your heart with me
"Thou Death, where now thy poisoned sting?
    Where, Grave thy victory?"