Poem by 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.

1. The October Redbreast
2. Singers to Come
3. Parentage
4. Spring on the Alban Hills
5. A Comparison in a Seaside Field

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