Classic and Contemporary Poetry
MUSING ON A GREAT SOLDIER, by HERBERT TRENCH Poet's Biography First Line: Fear? Yes ... I heard you saying Last Line: Tis time for us to weep. Subject(s): Soldiers | ||||||||
FEAR? Yes . . . I heard you saying In an Oxford common-room Where the hearth-light's kindly raying Stript the empanelled walls of gloom, Silver groves of candles playing In the soft wine turned to bloom -- At the word I see you now Blandly push the wine-boat's prow Round the mirror of that scored Yellow old mahogany board -- I confess to one fear; this, To be buried alive! My Lord, Your fancy has played amiss. Fear not. When in farewell While guns toll like a bell And the bell tolls like a gun Westminster towers call Folk and state to your funeral, And robed in honours won, Beneath the cloudy pall Of the lifted shreds of glory You lie in the last stall Of that gray dormitory -- Fear not lest mad mischance Should find you lapt and shrouded Alive in helpless trance Though seeming death-beclouded: For long ere so you rest On that transcendent bier Shall we not have addressed One summons, one last test, To your reluctant ear? O believe it! we shall have uttered In ultimate entreaty A name your soul would hear Howsoever thickly shuttered; We shall have stooped and muttered England! in your cold ear . . . Then, if your great pulse leap No more, nor your cheek burn, Enough; then shall we learn 'Tis time for us to weep. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ALL ARMIES ARE THE SAME by ERNEST HEMINGWAY ABSENT WITH OFFICIAL LEAVE by RANDALL JARRELL PORT OF EMBARKATION by RANDALL JARRELL THE CONFESSION OF ST. JIM-RALPH by DENIS JOHNSON |
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