From Laughter to Labor
We have wandered afar in our hunting for pleasure,
We have scorned the soul’s duty to gather up treasure;
We have lived for our laughter and toiled for our winning
And paid little heed to the soul’s simple sinning.
But light were the burdens that freighted us then,
God and country, to-day let us prove we are men!
We have idled and dreamed in life’s merriest places,
The years have writ little of care in our faces;
We have brought up our children, expectant of gladness,
And little we’ve taught them of life and its sadness.
For distant and dim seemed the forces of wrong,
God and country, to-day let us prove we are strong!
We have had our glad years, now the sad years are coming,
We have danced to gay tunes, now we march to war’s drumming.
We have laughed and have loved as we pleasantly toiled,
And now we must show that our souls are unspoiled.
We must work that our Flag shall in honor still wave,
God and country, to-day let us prove we are brave!
Other works by Edgar Albert Guest...
