What did we earth-bound make of it? A tangle Of vapour trails, a vertiginously high Swarming of midges, at most a fiery angel Hurled out of heaven, was all we could descry. How could we know the agony and pride That scrawled those fading signatures up there, And the cool expertise of those who died Or lived through that delirium of the air? Grounded on history now, we re-enact Such lives, such deaths. Time, laughing out of court The newspaper heroics and the faked Statistics, leaves us only to record. What was, what might have been: fighter and bomber, The tilting sky, tense moves and counterings; Those who outlived that legendary summer; Those who went down, its sunlight on their wings. And you, unborn then, what will you make of it— This shadow-play of battles long ago? Be sure of this: they pushed to the uttermost limit Their luck, skill, nerve. And they were young like you. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ABOVE AND WITHIN by DAVID IGNATOW UNDER THE CEDARCROFT CHESTNUT by SIDNEY LANIER SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: REV. LEMUEL WILEY by EDGAR LEE MASTERS THE NEW APOCRYPHA: THE FIG TREE by EDGAR LEE MASTERS |