<h2><SPAN name="poem78"></SPAN>WHAT WE NEED</h2>
<p class="poetry">What does our country need? No armies
standing<br/>
With sabres gleaming ready for the fight;<br/>
Not increased navies, skilful and commanding,<br/>
To bound the waters with an iron might;<br/>
Not haughty men with glutted purses trying<br/>
To purchase souls, and keep the power of place;<br/>
Not jewelled dolls with one another vying<br/>
For palms of beauty, elegance, and grace.</p>
<p class="poetry">But we want women, strong of soul, yet
lowly,<br/>
With that rare meekness, born of gentleness;<br/>
Women whose lives are pure and clean and holy,<br/>
The women whom all little children bless;<br/>
Brave, earnest women, helpful to each other,<br/>
With finest scorn for all things low and mean;<br/>
Women who hold the names of wife and mother<br/>
Far nobler than the title of a queen.</p>
<p class="poetry">Oh! these are they who mould the men of
story,<br/>
These mothers, ofttimes shorn of grace and youth,<br/>
Who, worn and weary, ask no greater glory<br/>
Than making some young soul the home of truth;<br/>
Who sow in hearts all fallow for the sowing<br/>
The seeds of virtue and of scorn for sin,<br/>
And, patient, watch the beauteous harvest growing<br/>
And weed out tares which crafty hands cast in;</p>
<p class="poetry">Women who do not hold the gift of beauty<br/>
As some rare treasure to be bought and sold.<br/>
But guard it as a precious aid to duty—<br/>
The outer framing of the inner gold;<br/>
Women who, low above their cradles bending,<br/>
Let flattery’s voice go by, and give no
heed,<br/>
While their pure prayers like incense are ascending<br/>
<i>These</i> are our country’s pride, our
country’s need,</p>
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