Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE MORNING BEFORE THE BATTLE, by ROBERT RANKE GRAVES


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THE MORNING BEFORE THE BATTLE, by             Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: To-day, the fight: my end is very soon
Last Line: That dead men blossomed in the garden-close.
Subject(s): World War I; First World War


To-day, the fight: my end is very soon,
And sealed the warrant limiting my hours:
I knew it walking yesterday at noon
Down a deserted garden full of flowers.
... Carelessly sang, pinned roses on my breast,
Reached for a cherry-bunch -- and then, then, Death
Blew through the garden from the North and East
And blilghted every beauty with chill breath.

I looked, and ah, my wraith before me stood,
His head all battered in by violent blows:
The fruit between my lips to clotted blood
Was transubstantiate, and the pale rose
Smelt sickly, till it seemed through a swift tear-flood
That dead men blossomed in the garden-close.




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