"Ancestral voices prophesying war."
THE MAN SPEAKS
When torpid stands the blood of civic life,
What shall revive but armèd strife?
THE WOMAN
The call to arms but calls your bravest brave--
Ye lose but that which it were Life to save!
THE MAN
When outland insults press the Sovereign State,
What shall avenge but War--what vindicate?
THE WOMAN
Who shall avenge the dead that War hath slain--
The mingled valor of the blood-drench'd plain?
THE MAN
The cry of Mars upon the citadel!--
I would be hence, the mustering throng to swell!
THE WOMAN
I, with Saturnia, breathing mist, would go--
To blind and stay the feet of friend and foe!
