Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER SPEAKS, by IRENE COLE MACARTHUR


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER SPEAKS, by                    
First Line: You lay your wreath above me tenderly
Last Line: "wide world re-echoes madly, gladly, ""peace!"
Subject(s): Peace


You lay your wreath above me tenderly,
Why can't you wait till I have had my say?
The cry of every heart resounds in me,
In every tongue since Babel speaks my clay:
Dear God, it matters not that here I lie
Unknown to anyone save Thee and me.
Earth's crust is full of mold of such as I,
And such as I shall yet be born, as free
To breathe Earth's air, warm in her sun, exult
In love of life as once I did. But why
Such wanton waste of wealth of youth? No cult
Of barbarism wasted more! If my
Full powers had, unmolested, given birth
To all potential promise, would not man
In time have been more truly helped, would earth
Have not been much more richly blest? How can
Mere clay be of more value than myself
Pulsing with dreams constructive? Let me lie
Thruout all time unknown, if some sweet elf
Can touch the heart strings of you passers-by
And bid you claim me kin, and for my sake
Proclaim this holy mission: Not again
Shall man lead fellow man to this mistake,
Colossal, stupid slaughter, not of man
Alone, but of ideals, and growth of soul,
Material progress, science, art! Release
For me can only come when once the whole
Wide world re-echoes madly, gladly, "PEACE!"





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


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