(Remembering Corporal Arthur Long, Negro, the first soldier from Alcorn County, Mississippi, reported killed in action in the invasion of Normandy.) She said, "Not only music; brave men marching Under the stripes and stars and sun's shining: War is sudden news. Your son was killed The tenth of June in France. Letter follows. "Oh, he was bold to hasten peace," she said. "And he was brave. And he desired tomorrow. He was too young to be compelled from sunlight, And moonlight; from the light of stars forever." She would ask questions, morbid on her mind: The fatal bullet found him; did he scream? Lie on the beach and call unhurrying death? Lord, was he waiting long? How long he fought In France, four days or one? Who saw him fall? Cared that he fell in sunshine, lay in rain, Or perished in the night? And what star cared Above his battleground in Normandy? "Now I know why Mary of Galilee, One morning, rose and went into the Garden. And I know why she tarried and was sad. Mary, it is the same with me," she said. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ASOLANDO: NOW by ROBERT BROWNING KILLED IN ACTION by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES O MORS! QUAM AMARA EST MEMORIA TUA HOMINI PACEM HABENTI by ERNEST CHRISTOPHER DOWSON COTTON MILL FUNERAL by STEWART ATKINS EULOGY by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON BALLAD TO THE TUNE OF 'PHILLIDA FLOUTS ME' by PATRICK CAREY |