Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE UNMERCENARIES, by ANONYMOUS


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE UNMERCENARIES, by                    
First Line: Jolly good fellows who die for the death of it
Last Line: Life often jests at what death makes immortal!
Subject(s): Humanity;immortality;labor & Laborers


JOLLY good fellows who die for the death of it,
Fight for the fun of it, live for the breath of it;
Catch at the instant and drink of the minute,
Thinking not, caring not what may be in it;

Foolish good fellows (and all of us know it),
Wasting their midnights in being a poet,
Giving their lives to the life of humanity,
Dreaming of fame — that extreme of insanity;

Silly good fellows who labor for science,
Lighting the way for their race's reliance.
Bearing their burdens with mien of a stoic,
Dreaming of gratitude — myth unheroic;

All the good fellows who think not of wages,
Foreign, in part, to the thing that our age is,
Giving no heed to the weight of the coffer,
Taking what Fate and not men have to offer;

They and the like of them, here's a health to them!
Taint of our lower aims never undo them,
They will survive us all, passed through the portal;
Life often jests at what death makes immortal!





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net