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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE SENTRY'S MISTAKE, by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: The chapel at the crossways bore no scar Last Line: "made him once more ""the terror of the hun." Alternate Author Name(s): Blunden, Edmund Subject(s): World War I; First World War | |||
THE chapel at the crossways bore no scar, Nor near had whining covey of shells yet pounced, The calm saints in the chapel knew no war, No meaning there the horizon's roars announced; We halted, and were glad; the country lay After our marching like a sabbath day. Round the still quadrangle of the great farm The company soon had settled their new home; The cherry-boughs were beckoning every arm, The stream ran wrinkling by with playful foam, And when the guard was at the gateway set, Surrounding pastoral sweetly stole their wit. So out upon the road, gamekeeper-like, The cowman now turned warrior measured out His up-and-down sans cursed bundook and spike, Under his arm a cudgel brown and stout; An air of comfort and kind ownership, A philosophic smile upon his lip. For it seemed sin to soil the harmonious air With the parade of weapons built to kill. But now a flagged car came ill-omened there. The crimson-mottled monarch, shocked and shrill, Sent our poor sentry scampering for his gun, Made him once more "the terror of the Hun." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...D'ANNUNZIO by ERNEST HEMINGWAY 1915: THE TRENCHES by CONRAD AIKEN TO OUR PRESIDENT by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE HORSES by KATHARINE LEE BATES CHILDREN OF THE WAR by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE U-BOAT CREWS by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE RED CROSS NURSE by KATHARINE LEE BATES WAR PROFITS by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE UNCHANGEABLE by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN ALMSWOMEN by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN |
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