"Winner of the 2010 Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award."

Reproduction of the original. The publishing house Megali specialises in reproducing historical works in large print to make reading easier for people with impaired vision.

Poetry. "Michael McIrvin's analysis of the modern American psyche is far beyond almost any other living U.S. poet. His poems are among the best informed and most intelligent you'll find. In fact, McIrvin's vision quest and its resultant insights into the complexities of human nature and the natural world exceed what most poets can ever hope to achieve"--Leonard Cirino.

Our hearts were not set on fighting, We did not pant for the fray, And whatever wrongs need righting, We would not have met that way. But the way that has opened before us Leads on thro' a blood-red field; And we swear by the great God o'er us, We will die, but we will not yield. The battle is not of our making, And war was never our plan; Yet, all that is sweet forsaking, We march to it, man by man. It is either to smite, or be smitten, There's no other choice to-day; And we live, as befits the Briton, Or we die, as the Briton may. We were not fashioned for cages, Or to feed from a keeper's hand; Our strength which has grown thro' ages Is the strength of a slave-free land. We cannot kneel down to a master, To our God alone can we pray; And we stand in this world disaster, To fight, like a lion at bay.