TO CONSCRIPTS “COMPEL THEM TO COME IN”
Reading edition
St. Luke’s Gospel
You “made a virtue of necessity”
By divine sanction; you, the loth, the grey,
The random, gentle, unconvinced; O, be
The crowned!—you may, you may.
You, the compelled, be feasted! You, the caught,
Be freemen of the gates that word unlocks!
Accept your victory from that unsought,
That heavenly paradox.
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