But for the sake of simple goodness
And His laws,
We shall sacrifice our all
For The Cause!
The Literary Digest remarked Lloyd Roberts’ Come Quietly, England as ‘one of the most striking statements of what may be called the philosophy of the war from the English [British] point of view because it puts so candidly into words the thoughts that are in the minds of the author’s fellow-countrymen.’ The other poem by Roberts, also in his new simple, colloquial, direct style, is entitled If I Must. It is the most remarkably original ‘anti-pacifist’ poem written by an English-speaking poet. It takes the form of a quasi-dramatic monologue, and concludes with a stanza which has, in journalistic slang, ‘punch’ in it. We quote the whole poem:—
God knows there’s plenty of earth for all of us;
Then why must we sweat for it, deny for it,
Pray for it, cry for it,
Kill, maim and lie for it,
Struggle and suffer and die for it—