Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A DEAD AIRMAN, by MORAY DALTON


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A DEAD AIRMAN, by                    
First Line: May's tapestry of green and gold
Last Line: Can so view death.
Subject(s): Aviation & Aviators; Death; War; Airplanes; Air Pilots; Dead, The


May's tapestry of green and gold
Was hung about us fold on fold,
Where, in the copse, the cuckoo calls,
A scented arras on the walls
Of space and time, that held us close
As bees are garnered by the rose,
And we two, walking in that wood,
Had half forgot the mire and blood,

(Forgive us, you who sleep in France!)
We half forgot, and then some chance
Or some stern angel led the way
Through quiet fields to where he lay
Broken, beneath his broken wings,
Dead, who had known but twenty Springs,
Still, where a million pulses beat,
Face downwards in the young green wheat.

That wreckage, gaunt and angular,
Had flashed above us like a star
An hour before. Its course was done;
Finished; and one more woman's son
Had cast the cloak so dearly bought,
With patience and in travail wrought
For nine long months, worn twenty years,
How gaily! Now Fate's shears
Had rent it, and the naked soul
Slipped out at once.
To see life whole
One needs good eyes, but only God
Can so view death.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net