The Dawn of Peace

Yes--"on our brows we feel the breath
  Of dawn," though in the night we wait!
An arrow is in the heart of Death,
  A God is at the doors of Fate!
The Spirit that moved upon the Deep
  Is moving through the minds of men:
The nations feel it in their sleep,
  A change has touched their dreams again.

Dreams are they? But ye cannot stay them,
  Or thrust the dawn back for one hour!
Truth, Love, and Justice, if ye slay them,
  Return with more than earthly power:
Strive, if ye will, to seal the fountains
  That send the Spring thro' leaf and spray:
Drive back the sun from the Eastern
    mountains,
  Then--bid this mightier movement stay.

It is the Dawn! The Dawn! The nations
  From East to West have heard a cry,--
Though all earth's blood-red generations
  By hate and slaughter climbed thus high,
Here--on this height--still to aspire,
  One only path remains untrod,
One path of love and peace climbs higher.
  Make straight that highway for our God.

--Alfred Noyes