Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE PACT, by ALFRED NOYES


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE PACT, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: They have no pact to sign - our peaceful dead
Last Line: Our dead will rise again.
Subject(s): Death; Religion; War; Dead, The; Theology


They have no pact to sign—our peaceful dead.
Pacts are for trembling hands and heads grown gray.
Ten million graves record what youth has said,
And cannot now unsay.

They have no pact to sign—our quiet dead
Whose eyes in that eternal peace are drowned.
Age doubts and wakes, and asks if night be fled;
But youth sleeps sound.

They have no pact to sign—our faithful dead.
Theirs is a deeper pledge, unseen, unheard,
Sealed in the dark, unwritten, sealed with red;
And they will keep their word.

They have no pact to sign—our happy dead.
But if, O God, if WE should sign in vain,
With dreadful eyes, out of each narrow bed,
Our dead will rise again.




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