• Author: Burr, Amelia Josephine
• Editor: B-7413
• Newspaper: The Umpire volume 6
• Page Number:
• Date: 9 26 1917
• Tags:
• poetry

A PATH OF GOLD

A path of gold—oh, build it quick and straight For mercy’s feet to tread! There is no time to wait— Each minute pulses red From Freedom’s wounded heart. Make haste to do your part! Swift as they are, your gifts will be too late To help the dead. But there are those who live, whom you can spare A little of the agony they bear For you—that’s true; have you not thought how true? For you, These, who have learned how much body and soul endure, Their church bells were as sweet as ours, Their gardens were as glad as flowers, Their women were as pure, Their children sang and laughed and played As merry and as unafraid— O little heads bowed on the desks as though The lesson being hard, you fell asleep! We shudder and we weep—but tears are cheap. More, more than tears must pay the debt we owe To those whose bleeding breasts have been our shield, A wall that will not yield. God knows this moment is too deep for hate. The hour is great, it calls us to be great. Our hand shall comfort him whom it must strike— For wounded friend and wounded foe alike A path of gold! Oh, build it quick and straight!

—Amelia Josephine Burr.