Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SOLDIER, by GEORGE WITHER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SOLDIER, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Now in myself I notice take
Subject(s): Courage




Now in myself I notice take,
What life we soldiers lead,
My hair stands up, my heart doth ache,
My soul is full of dread;
And to declare
This horrid fear,
Throughout my bones I feel
A shiv'ring cold
On me lay hold,
And run from head to heel.
It is not loss of limbs or breath
Which hath me so dismay'd,
Nor mortal wounds nor groans of death
Have made me thus array?
When cannons roar I start no more
Than mountains from their place,
Nor feel I fears,
Though swords and spears
Are darted at my face.
A soldier it would ill become
Such common things to fear,
The shouts of war, the tlumd'ring drum,
His courage up doth cheer:
Though dust and smoke His passage choke,
He boldly marcheth on,
And thinketh scorn His back to turn,
Till all be lost or won.
That whereupon the dread begins
Which thus appalleth me, Is that huge troop of crying sins
Which rife in soldiers be;
The wicked mind,
Wherewith I find Into the field they go,
More terror hath,
Than all the wrath
And engines of the foe.
The rapes, the spoils, and acts unjust
Which are in soldiers rife,
Their damned oaths, their brutish lust,
Their cursed course of life,
More dreadful are,
When death draws near,
Than death itself can be;
And he that knows
The fear of those,
The mouth of hell doth see.






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