Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SHERMAN, by RICHARD WATSON GILDER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SHERMAN, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Glory and honor and fame and everlasting laudation
Last Line: Was the thought of duty done and the love of his fellow-men.
Subject(s): Holidays; Memorial Day; Sherman, William Tecumseh (1820-1891); Declaration Day


GLORY and honor and fame and everlasting laudation
For our captains who loved not war, but fought for the life
of the nation;
Who knew that, in all the land, one slave meant strife, not peace;
Who fought for freedom, not glory; made war that war might cease.

Glory and honor and fame; the beating of muffled drums;
The wailing funeral dirge, as the flag-wrapped coffin comes;
Fame and honor and glory; and joy for a noble soul,
For a full and splendid life, and laurelled rest at the goal.

Glory and honor and fame; the pomp that a soldier prizes;
The league-long waving line as the marching falls and rises;
Rumbling of caissons and guns; the clatter of horses' feet,
And a million awe-struck faces far down the waiting street.

But better than martial woe, and the pageant of civic sorrow;
Better than praise of to-day, or the statue we build to-morrow;
Better than honor and glory, and history's iron pen,
Was the thought of duty done and the love of his fellow-men.





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