The Hope of the Ages

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Melody - "Three Cheers for the Red, White and Blue"
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E. Nesbit

If you dam up the river of progress--
At your peril and cost let It be;
That river must seawards despite you--
'Twill break down your dams and be free;
And we heed not the pitiful barriers
That you in its way have downcast;
For your efforts but add to the torrent,
Whose flood must overwhelm you at last.
Chorus:
For our banner is rais'd and unfurled;
At your head our defiance is hurled;
Our cry is the cry of the ages--
Our hope is the hope of the world.

2. We laugh in the face of the forces
That strengthen the flood they oppose;
For the harder oppression the fiercer
The current will be when it flows.
We shall win, and the tyrant's battalions
Will scatter like chaff in the fight,
From which the true Soldiers of Freedom
Shall gather new courage and might.
Chorus:

3. Whether leading the van of the fighters,
In bitterest stress of the strife;
Or patiently bearing the burden
Of changelessly commonplace life,
One hope we have ever before us,
Our aim to attain and fulfill,
One watchword we cherish to mark us,
One kindred and brotherhood still.
Chorus:

4. What matter if failure on failure
Crowd closely upon us and press?
When a hundred have bravely been beaten
The hundred and first wins success.
Our watchword is "Freedom"; new soldiers
Flock each day where her flag is unfurled,
Our cry is the cry of the ages,
Our hope is the hope of the world.
Chorus:

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