| James and Mary Ford, eds. Every Day in the Year. 1902. | | | | May 26 | | The Voice of the Oregon | | By H. J. D. Browne |
| | | | Reached Key West, Fla., May 26, 1898. (See note under date of March 19.) |
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YOU have called to me, my brothers, from your far-off eastern sea, | |
| To join with you, my brothers, to set a prostrate people free. | |
| You have called to me, my brothers, to join to yours my might, | |
| The slaughterers of our brethren with our armored hands to smite. | |
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| We have never met, my brothers, we mailed knights of the sea; | 5 |
| But there are no strangers, brothers, ’neath the Banner of the Free; | |
| And though half a world’s between us, and ten thousand leagues divide, | |
| Our souls are intermingled, and our hearts are side by side. | |
| Did you fail to call me, brothers, ’twere a fault without atone, | |
| ’Twas but just to me, my brothers, you should not strike alone. | 10 |
| The brethren in the slaughter were no more thine than mine, | |
| And the blows that visit vengeance must be mine as well as thine. | |
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| Through days of placid beauty, and nights when tempests toss, | |
| I follow down the billows, my guide the Southern Cross; | |
| Past lands of quiet splendor, where pleasant waters lave; | 15 |
| Past lands whose mountain ramparts fling back the crashing wave. | |
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| But I see no land of splendor, and I see no land of wrath; | |
| I see before me only the ocean’s heaving path, | |
| And I plunge along that pathway like a giant to the fray, | |
| Who hath no stomach in him for aught that might delay. | 20 |
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| I am nearing you, my brothers, for the western sea’s afar, | |
| And the ray that lights my course now is the gleaming Northern Star. | |
| I pray you wait, my brothers, for the air with war is rife, | |
| And in courtesy of knighthood I claim to share the strife. | |
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| In the winds that blow about me the voices of the dead | 25 |
| Are calling to me, brothers, to urge my topmost speed. | |
| In the foam that’s upward flying in whirling wreaths of white, | |
| The wraiths of murdered brothers beckon onward to the fight. | |
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| I am coming to you, brothers, wait but a little while, | |
| And on the thunders of our greeting shall the God of Vengeance smile; | 30 |
| And in the flashing and the crashing, the universe shall see | |
| How we pay our debts of honor, we mailed knights of the sea. | | | |
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