<h2><SPAN name="page219"></SPAN><span class="pagenum"></span>MONOTONES</h2>
<p class="poetry"><span class="smcap">Because</span> there is but
one truth;<br/>
Because there is but one banner;<br/>
Because there is but one light;<br/>
Because we have with us our youth<br/>
Once, and one chance and one manner<br/>
Of service, and then the
night;</p>
<p class="poetry">Because we have found not yet<br/>
Any way for the world to follow<br/>
Save only that ancient way;<br/>
Whosoever forsake or forget,<br/>
Whose faith soever be hollow,<br/>
Whose hope soever grow grey;</p>
<p class="poetry">Because of the watchwords of kings<br/>
That are many and strange and unwritten,<br/>
Diverse, and our watchword is
one;<br/>
Therefore, though seven be the strings,<br/>
One string, if the harp be smitten,<br/>
Sole sounds, till the tune be
done;</p>
<p class="poetry">Sounds without cadence or change<br/>
In a weary monotonous burden,<br/>
Be the keynote of mourning or
mirth;<br/>
Free, but free not to range;<br/>
Taking for crown and for guerdon<br/>
No man’s praise upon
earth;</p>
<p class="poetry"><SPAN name="page220"></SPAN><span class="pagenum">p.
220</span>Saying one sole word evermore,<br/>
In the ears of the charmed world saying,<br/>
Charmed by spells to its death;<br/>
One that chanted of yore<br/>
To a tune of the sword-sweep’s playing<br/>
In the lips of the dead blew
breath;</p>
<p class="poetry">Therefore I set not mine hand<br/>
To the shifting of changed modulations,<br/>
To the smiting of manifold
strings;<br/>
While the thrones of the throned men stand,<br/>
One song for the morning of nations,<br/>
One for the twilight of kings.</p>
<p class="poetry">One chord, one word, and one way,<br/>
One hope as our law, one heaven,<br/>
Till slain be the great one
wrong;<br/>
Till the people it could not slay,<br/>
Risen up, have for one star seven,<br/>
For a single, a sevenfold
song.</p>
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