RIGHT OR MIGHT – WHICH?

Ye warriors grim, who rend the air
With screaming bomb and deadly shell;
Who spread destruction, and prepare
To turn the earth into a hell:
Before your hordes the weak are hurled,
Their homes and hopes alike destroyed;
So once again you’ve shown the world
That you of mercy are devoid.

‘Gainst crowns and thrones, with ruthless hand,
You rise to make your power supreme;
But a Higher than your “High Command,”
One day shall blast your evil dream:
You then shall find the sword of right
Much sharper than the sword of steel;
For it shall cut the bands which bind
The weak beneath your iron heel.

Like wolves descending on the fold,
The Assyrians once came down to slay;
Their gleaming cohorts, fierce and bold,
‘Gainst Israel rose in wild array:
Then He whose power is all-supreme,
Spread desolation in their train;
And like the autumn leaves were strown,
Their lifeless bodies o’er the plain.

We’ve met the flaming force of arms
On many a blood-stain’d field of war,
And, once again, ‘mid wild alarms,
We grapple with the evil star:
In faith’s assurance that the right
Shall o’er the rule of might prevail
That freedom’s cause shall triumph bright,
And Nazi hate forever fail.

H. Calderwood,
Cullybackey
September 1940