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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


WAR NOTES: 3. TWO PARADES by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON

First Line: THE UNIFORMS GLEAM BRIGHT, AND AS OF YORE
Last Line: THE BRONZED AND BATTERED VETERANS LIMP BY.
Subject(s): PARADES; VETERANS; WAR;

@3Civic Display@1

The uniforms gleam bright, and as of yore
Fifes lift the feet that step in time full gay:
This soldiering looks handsome; hark, the roar
That rends the very skies of spring to-day
From mobile multitudes who line the way.
Behold the grace and gallantry of war!

@3The Return of the Veterans@1

Beneath gray gloom they tramp along: their tread
Lacks rhythm; faded, soiled, and torn their dress;
They wot of storm and peril, wounds that bled,
And pains beyond imagination's guess.
The lookers-on, struck mute by tenderness,
Hardly huzza: it is as if the dead
Walked with the quick. Beneath a brooding sky
The bronzed and battered veterans limp by.



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