Dragon-Seed

Ye have ploughed the field like cattle,
Ye have sown the dragon-seed, —
Are ye ready now for battle?—
For fighters are what we need.
Have ye done with taking and giving?
The old gods, Give and Take?—
Then into the ranks of the living,
And fight for the fighting's sake.

Let who will thrive by cunning,
And lies be another's cure;
But girdle your loins for running,
And the goal of Never Sure.
Enough of idle shirking!
Though you hate like death your part
There is nothing helps like working
When you work with all your heart.

For the world is fact, not fiction,
And its battle is not with words;
And what helps is not men's diction,
But the temper of their swords.
For what each does is measure
Of that he is, I say:
And not by the ranks of Leisure
Is the battle won to-day.