Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, KITCHENER'S MARCH, by AMELIA JOSEPHINE BURR


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

KITCHENER'S MARCH, by                    
First Line: Not the muffled drums for him
Last Line: Take the field again!
Subject(s): Kitchener, Horatio, 1st Earl (1850-1916); World War I - Casualties


NOT the muffled drums for him
Nor the wailing of the fife.
Trumpets blaring to the charge
Were the music of his life.
Let the music of his death
Be the feet of marching men.
Let his heart a thousandfold
Take the field again!

Of his patience, of his calm,
Of his quiet faithfulness,
England, build your hero's cairn!
He was worthy of no less.
Stone by stone, in silence laid,
Singly, surely, let it grow.
He whose living was to serve
Would have had it so.

There's a body drifting down
For the mighty sea to keep.
There's a spirit cannot die
While one heart is left to leap
In the land he gave his all,
Steel-like to praise and hate.
He has saved the life he spent—
Death has struck too late.

Not the muffled drums for him
Nor the wailing of the fife—
Trumpets blaring to the charge
Were the music of his life.
Let the music of his death
Be the feet of marching men.
Let his heart a thousandfold
Take the field again!





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