E-text prepared by Pat Saumell and Chuck Greif
Over Here
By
Edgar A. Guest
Author of
"A Heap o' Livin'" "Just Folks"
The Reilly & Britton Co.
Chicago
1918
To the Mothers Over Here
INDEX
Alarm, The
America
April Thoughts
As It Looks to the Boy
Battle Prayer, A
Beautifying the Flag
Better Thing, The
Big Deeds, The
Bigger Than His Dad
Boy Enlists, The
Boy's Adventure, The
Call,The
Call to Service, The
Change, The
Chaplain, The
Christmas, 1918
Christmas Box, The
Christmas Greeting, A
Complacent Slacker,The
Constant Beauty
Creed, A
Discovery of a Soul, The
Do Your All
Drafted
Duty
Easy Service
Envy
Everywhere in America
Exempt
Father's Prayer, A
Father's Thoughts, A
Father's Tribute, A
Flag, The
Flag on the Farm, The
Fly a Clean Flag
Follow a Famous Father
Follow the Flag
For Your Boy and Mine
Friendly Greeting, The
From Laughter to Labor
Future, The
General Pershing
Girl He Left Behind, The
Glory of Age, The
Gold Givers, The
Good Luck
Good Soldier, A
Hate
He Should Meet a Mother There
Here We Are!
His Room
His Santa Claus
Honor Roll, The
Hope
Ideals
Important Thing, The
Joy to Be, The
July the Fourth, 1917
Kelly Ingram
Life's Slacker
Living
Memorial Day
Mother Faith, The
Mother on the Sidewalk, The
Mothers and Wives
My Part
New Year, The
Next of Kin
Our Duty to Our Flag
Out of It All
Over Here
Patriot, A
Patriotic Creed, A
Patriotic Wish, A
Plea, A
Prayer, A
Prayer, 1918, A
Princess Pats, The
Proof of Worth, The
Prophecy
Rebellion
Reflection
Runner McGee
See It Through
Selfishness
Show the Flag
Soldier on Crutches, The
Soldierly
Spring in the Trenches
Struggle, The
Sympathy
Taking His Place
Thanksgiving
Things That Make a Soldier Great, The
Thoughts of a Soldier
Time for Deeds, The
To a Kindly Critic
To a Lady Knitting
To the Men at Home
Undaunted, The
United
Unsettled Scores, The
Waiter at the Camp, The
Warriors
War's Homecoming
We Need a Few More Optimists
We Who Stay at Home
We've Had a Letter From the Boy
When the Drums Shall Cease to Beat
Why We Fight
Wish, A
Wrist Watch Man, The
Your Country Needs You
Over Here
Pledged to the bravest and the best,
We stand, who cannot share the fray,
Staunch for the danger and the test.
For them at night we kneel and pray.
Be with them, Lord, who serve the truth,
And make us worthy of our youth!
Here mother-love and father-love
Unite in love of country now;
Here to the flag that flies above,
Our heads we reverently bow;
Here as one people, night and day,
For victory we work and pray.
Nor race nor creed shall difference make,
Nor bigot mar the zealot's plan;
We give our all for Freedom's sake,
Each man a king, each king a man.
Make us the equal, Lord, we pray
Of them who die for truth to-day!
Let us as gladly give our best,
Let us as bravely pay the price
As they, who in the bitter test
Meet the supremest sacrifice.
Oh, God! Wherever we are led,
Let us be worthy of our dead!
Let us not compromise the truth,
Let us not cringe so much in fear
That foes may whisper to our youth
That we have failed in courage here.
Lord, strengthen us, that they may know
Our spirits follow where they go!
Why We Fight
This is the thing we fight:
A cry of terror in the night;
A ship on work of mercy bent—
A carrier of the sick and maimed—
Beneath the cruel waters sent,
And those that did it, unashamed.
A woman who had tried to fill
A mother's place; had nursed the ill
And soothed the troubled brows of pain
And earned the dying's grateful prayers,
Before a wall by soldiers slain!
And such a poor pretext was theirs!
Old women pierced by bayonets grim
And babies slaughtered for a whim,
Cathedrals made the sport of shells,
No mercy, even for a child,
As though the imps of all the hells
Were crazed with drink and running wild.
All this we fight—that some day when
Good sense shall come again to men,
Our children's children may not read
This age's history thus defamed
And find we served a selfish creed
And ever be of us ashamed!
America
God has been good to men. He gave
His Only Son their souls to save,
And then he made a second gift,
Which from their dreary lives should lift
The tyrant's yoke and set them free
From all who'd throttle liberty.
He gave America to men—
Fashioned this land we love, and then
Deep in her forests sowed the seed
Which was to serve man's earthly need.
When wisps of smoke first upwards curled
From pilgrim fires, upon the world
Unnoticed and unseen, began
God's second work of grace for man.
Here where the savage roamed and fought,
God sowed the seed of nobler thought;
Here to the land we love to claim,
The pioneers of freedom came;
Here has been cradled all that's best
In every human mind and breast.
For full four hundred years and more
Our land has stretched her welcoming shore
To weary feet from soils afar;
Soul-shackled serfs of king and czar
Have journeyed here and toiled and sung
And talked of freedom to their young,
And God above has smiled to see
This precious work of liberty,
And watched this second gift He gave
The dreary lives of men to save.
And now, when liberty's at bay,
And blood-stained tyrants force the fray,
Worn warriors, battling for the right,
Crushed by oppression's cruel might,
Hear in the dark through which they grope
America's glad cry of hope:
Man's liberty is not to die!
America is standing by!
World-wide shall human lives be free:
America has crossed the sea!
America! the land we love!
God's second gift from Heaven above,
Builded and fashioned out of truth,
Sinewed by Him with splendid youth
For that glad day when shall be furled
All tyrant flags throughout the world.
For this our banner holds the sky:
That liberty shall never die.
For this, America began:
To make a brotherhood of man.
The Time for Deeds
We have boasted our courage in moments of ease,
Our star-spangled banner we've flung on the breeze;
We have taught men to cheer for its beauty and worth,
And have called it the flag of the bravest on earth
Now the dark days are here, we must stand to the test.
Oh, God! let us prove we are true to our best!
We have drunk to our flag, and we've talked of the right,
We have challenged oppression to show us its might;
We have strutted for years through the world as a race
That for God and for country, earth's tyrants would face;
Now the gage is flung down, hate is loosed in the world.
Oh, God! shall our flag in dishonor be furled?
We have said we are brave; we have preached of the truth,
We have walked in conceit of the strength of our youth;
We have mocked at the ramparts and guns of the foe,
As though we believed we could laugh them all low.
Now oppression has struck! We are challenged to fight!
Oh, God! let us prove we can stand for the right!
If in honor and glory our flag is to wave,
If we are to keep this—the land of the brave;
If more than fine words are to fashion our creeds,
Now must our hands and our hearts turn to deeds.
We are challenged by tyrants our strength to reveal!