God, God, how well they meant, How utterly they failed! Why wilt Thou give us strength, Courage and fortitude, But leave us without reason, impotent? They poured us out like water. The thirsty ground still drank, And still they poured; until The hills above the sea Were red as sunset, but unconquered still. Such blood, so young, so proud! No Homer will rise up To sing their deeds; for deeds There be too great for song, And heroes must be few to stir the rage. All Canada was Ajax, And India, to a man, As fierce as Hector was! The young isles of the south Blazed like Achilles when they killed his friend. And all for what? For nothing! We, who in the west Had crossed perhaps the Rhine, Have crossed but Lethe here, And won but failure for our only fame. There never was a cause So worthy to be won! If France and England die, Freedom and faith are dead -- Give them, O God, not heroes' hearts, but brains! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...STREET WINDOW by CARL SANDBURG UNDER A TELEPHONE POLE by CARL SANDBURG TO IMAGINATION (2) by EMILY JANE BRONTE THIRD BOOK OF AIRS: SONG 26. FIRST LOVE by THOMAS CAMPION GLOUCESTER MOORS by WILLIAM VAUGHN MOODY TICHBORNE'S ELEGY, WRITTEN IN THE TOWER BEFORE HIS EXECUTION by CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE |