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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
HARVARD DECLARES WAR, by BRENT DOW ALLINSON First Line: Hang out the flags!' the college president said Last Line: Thy hallowed ivied walls with strands of sable crepe! Subject(s): Death; Harvard University; Soldiers; War; World War I; World War Ii; Dead, The; First World War; Second World War | |||
"Hang out the flags!" the college president said, "The war we dreaded is at last declared!" ... Crimson and white and bright arterial red— Hang out the valiant gonfalons that shared With Yale's o'ersicklied blue the football cheers! Plant cannon in the Yard facing the town, Turn seniors into sergeants; make them drill Young sophomores in the goose-step up and down; Conveniently forget the boast of years, And where three hours' tramp from Bunker Hill The ancient elm of Washington still rears Its riven arms, stand up in cap and gown Among the ranked alumni now and sing With proud and lusty hearts: "God Save the King!" Give all of them degrees who'll learn to kill The Germans and their own creative will; Exhort them into excellent credulous slaves, Inspire, bedazzle, threaten, lash the waves Of youth's fine frenzy; give to hate release! Fair Harvard must be first in war as well as peace! Why hang this classic crimson in the Yard? Why all this bunting for the vulgar's seeing? Is it to bless the iron and the shard,— Or in some football way to gladden being? What has this brawl to do with art or learning? Because stampeded men have now begun it Do we pretend they have already won it? Is there not quite enough for us to do To keep the lamps of wisdom faintly burning— To light this darkness with the just, the true? ... For very shame to be thus sold, defrauded Because the captains and the goths applauded! To see our citadel to plunderers bartered And seal our eyes and lips while Truth is martyred! ... O rather, Harvard, in this shameful hour When lamps are quenched and Madness rides on Power Go place a fool's cap on thy founder's head And where thy banners burn, O, hang instead White sheets devised with cross-bones twain, and drape Thy hallowed ivied walls with strands of sable crepe! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...PORT OF EMBARKATION by RANDALL JARRELL GREATER GRANDEUR by ROBINSON JEFFERS FAMILY GROUP by ARCHIBALD MACLEISH THE BRITISH COUNTRYSIDE IN PICTURES by JAMES MCMICHAEL READING MY POEMS FROM WORLD WAR II by WILLIAM MEREDITH CHRISTMAS, 1917 by BRENT DOW ALLINSON PRAYER IN THE TRENCHES by BRENT DOW ALLINSON THE HERO OF VIMY; AN INCIDENT OF THE GREAT WAR by BRENT DOW ALLINSON |
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