Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, VETERANS, TEACH US!, by AMOS RUSSEL WELLS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

VETERANS, TEACH US!, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Veterans, ere you leave us -- and thin are your lessening columns
Last Line: So with the changing age new dangers will meet old daring.
Subject(s): Veterans


Veterans, ere you leave us -- and thin are your lessening columns,
Ere you are laid with your wounds in the soil of your glorified country,
Stars and Stripes on your coffin and taps blown soft in the graveyard,
Ere you pass to the shore where your comrades are drawn up to greet you,
Give to us who remain a share of your courage and vigor;
Teach us, young and mature, the zeal that age has not withered.
Ours are different foes, they come not out in the open,
Never with shot and shell announce the place of their hiding;
Rather they lurk in the swamps and fill the air with miasma;
Rather they poison the wells, and lay their mines in the midnight.
They are the cohorts of greed, shameless and crafty and cruel.
They are the bandits of lust, crawling, treacherous, deadly.
They are the rabble of hate, torches and bombs for their weapons.
Thieves are they and despoilers, vandals of all that is precious.
Ah, would they draw the sword and leap to a manifest battle!
Would we could see them and hear them and feel the shock of their onset!
Teach us, veterans passing, how to be heroes of patience;
How to fight in the dark, and how to grapple with spectres!
How to watch, and endure, and strike at the drag of a shadow!
How to throttle a fever, and how to sabre a passion!
Give us your faith and your hope, and your invincible courage,
Keeping your muskets and swords and wheeling your cannon with you;
Useless are they for our war, but give us more powerful weapons,
Wisdom and firmness and truth, the love of God and our country.
These as ye pass, O heroes, give us who must now be heroic.
Gird them close to our souls, and teach us well how to use them.
So, as you march to your graves, veterans worn with the conflict,
You will lie down in peace, leaving a true succession.
So with the changing age new dangers will meet old daring.





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