Reveille

By Louis Untermeyer

1885-1977

What sudden bugle calls us in the night
         And wakes us from a dream that we had shaped;
Flinging us sharply up against a fight
         We thought we had escaped.

It is no easy waking, and we win
         No final peace; our victories are few.
But still imperative forces pull us in
         And sweep us somehow through.

Summoned by a supreme and confident power
         That wakes our sleeping courage like a blow,
We rise, half-shaken, to the challenging hour,
         And answer it -- and go.

DayPoems Poem No. 1344
<a href="http://www.daypoems.net/poems/1344.html">Reveille by Louis Untermeyer</a>

The DayPoems Poetry Collection, www.daypoems.net
Timothy Bovee, editor

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