Dawn of Peace

From The Birmingham Age-Herald, January 18, 1913.
 By John Ruskin.
 

 Put off, put off your mail, O kings,
 And beat your brands to dust,
 Your hands must learn a surer grasp,
 Your hearts a better trust.
 
 Oh, bend aback the lance’s point,
 And break the helmet bar;
 A noise is in the morning wind,
 But not the note of war.
 
 Upon the grassy mountain paths,
 The glittering hosts increase;
 They come, they come! How fair their feet—
 They come who publish peace.
 
 And victory, fair victory,
 Our enemies are ours;
 For all the clouds are clasped in light
 And all the earth with flowers.
 
 Ay, still depressed and dim with dew,
 But wait a little while;
 And with the radiant deathless rose
 The wilderness shall smile.
 
 And every dainty tender thing
 Shall feed by streams of rest;
 No lamb shall from the flock be lost,
 Nor nursling from the nest.