William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. (1878–1962). Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1920.

Rebels

STIFF in midsummer green, the stolid hillsides

March with their trees, dependable and stanch,

Except where here and there a lawless maple

Thrusts to the sky one red, rebellious branch.

You see them standing out, these frank insurgents,

With that defiant and arresting plume;

Scattered, they toss this flame like some wild signal,

Calling their comrades to a brilliant doom.

What can it mean—this strange, untimely challenge;

This proclamation of an early death?

Are they so tired of earth they fly the banner

Of dissolution and a bleeding faith?

Or is it, rather than a brief defiance,

An anxious welcome to a vivid strife?

A glow, a heart-beat, and a bright acceptance

Of all the rich exuberance of life.

Rebellious or resigned, they flaunt their color,

A sudden torch, a burning battle-cry.

“Light up the world,” they wave to all the others;

“Swiftly we live and splendidly we die.”

Harper’s Magazine