English poem
The Recruit
by Louise Imogen Guiney (1861–1920)
SO much to me is imminent: To leave Revolt that is my tent, And Failure, chosen for my bride,
And into life’s highway be gone, Ere yet Creation marches on, Obedient, jocund, glorified;
And last of things afoot, to know How to be free is still to go With glad concession, grave accord,
Nor longer, bond and imbecile, Stand out against the gradual Will, The guessed Fall in! of God the Lord.
The Martyrs’ Idyl first came out in the Christmas number, 1898, of Harper’s Magazine. With the exception of that, of three poems taken from “England and Yesterday” (Grant Richards, London), and of one other, the contents of this volume appeared prior to 1896 in Harper’s, The Century, The Cosmopolitan, The Independent, The Chap-Book, etc., to all of which thanks are due for the courteous permission to reprint.
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The Riverside Press
CAMBRIDGE, MASS., U. S. A.