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Home  »  The Second Book of Modern Verse  »  Reveillé

Jessie B. Rittenhouse, ed. (1869–1948). The Second Book of Modern Verse. 1922.

Reveillé

WHAT sudden bugle calls us in the night

And wakes us from a dream that we had shaped;

Flinging us sharply up against a fight

We thought we had escaped.

It is no easy waking, and we win

No final peace; our victories are few.

But still imperative forces pull us in

And sweep us somehow through.

Summoned by a supreme and confident power

That wakes our sleeping courage like a blow,

We rise, half-shaken, to the challenging hour,

And answer it—and go.