Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ON ARMISTICE DAY; NOVEMBER 11, 1921, by ERNEST E. DAVIES


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ON ARMISTICE DAY; NOVEMBER 11, 1921, by                    
First Line: The multitude has watched, with silent prayer
Last Line: The men who put his treaty to the sword.
Subject(s): Holidays; Soldiers; Veterans; Veterans Day; War


The multitude has watched, with silent prayer,
The Unknown Lad of Arlington borne by;
Sad strains of funeral dirges fill the air,
And muffled drums repeat their mournful cry.

Then suddenly, in spite of time and place,
Applause rings out above the muffled drums,
And all eyes turn, expecting soon to face
Some great one who in martial splendor comes.

'Tis but a pale, worn scholar stirs their zeal,
Who in his time dared look beyond the sea;
Dared couple with his own great country's weal
The welfare of entire humanity.

Who asked that nations act as men who stand,
Like Pilgrim Fathers, on a lawless shore,
And to a solemn compact set their hand,
Pledged one and all to guard it evermore.

No escort flanks him round on prancing steeds;
There are no ribboned medals on his breast;
No brazen trumpets glorify his deeds,
Nor shall, perhaps, until he is at rest.

Yet mark this well, ye men who wrought him woe:
His deeds will live when you and I are dust;
His concepts o'er the wide world grow and grow,
As battle-fleets and guns are turned to rust.

Great statesmen may be shorn of place and power,
Yet grow to greater power with Hate's decay,
When their high-thinking comes at last to flower,
And blossoms in a more enlightened day.

A more enlightened day, which this applause
Is prologue to on this most solemn morn;
For now the tide has turned, and his great cause
Finds tongues to praise that once spake but in scorn.

The Soldier to his marble home has passed;
The Scholar seeks the joys his books afford,
Content to know his teaching will outlast
The men who put his treaty to the sword.





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