Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE RETURN OF AUGUST, by PERCY MACKAYE Poet's Biography First Line: Darkly a mortal age has come and gone Last Line: The summer wanes: the ploughman comes with spring. Alternate Author Name(s): Mackaye, Percy Wallace Subject(s): Death; World War I; Dead, The; First World War | ||||||||
Darkly a mortal age has come and gone And man grown ancient in a single year. August! The summer month is blasted sere With memories earth bleeds to dream upon. To dream upon! Ah, were we dreaming then Ere Europe, blindfold, lulled in holiday, Harkened the sudden thunder through her play And fumbling held her breath to hark again, Or is this blighted year our dream? -- How swift The blackening tempest fell! How vast, through fire And cloud of Belgium's rape, a planet's ire Flared on that pall of shame, while through the rift The livid sorrows racked our sympathies! For still thought burned unclouded: Right and wrong Strove for the palm as in an epic song; And so we poured our succor overseas, Neutral in act but never in our souls, Yet guarding the brave goal of peace. Till soon -- Slow-warping to the waning year's blind moon -- The tide ebbed back, and in the freezing shoals We stared upon the dead -- the dead, whose mothers Suckled them still in dreams. Stark mid the stench And yellow choke that reeked from shell and trench They lay together there -- mere boys, and brothers. Were these the epic hosts of Wrong and Right Whose clash had whirled us in their spirits' war? These silent boys! What had they battled for To lie such still bedfellows in the night? Must breath of dying brothers wake the brass That thrills the call to arms? Shall ghostly lips Summon the living to the dark eclipse And all their dearest shout to see them pass Merely for this: That these who might have shared A simple handclasp share a bloodied sod? -- So for a while we gazed and questioned God: A haunted while: for dimly as we stared Far off we heard the multitudinous cry Of mangled Poland like a cry in sleep, And, Serbia fever-panting, and the deep Half-breathed self-doubt of prisoned Germany, And still far tidings blew, but that first spark Of August splendor burned in them no more; Pity and sorrow palled, and custom wore A deeper callus and a blur more dark, Till sudden -- the Lusitania! Lightnings shot The unhallowed message, and a shuddering fire Leapt from our long-charred hearts -- a glowing spire, And Europe's sword swung nearer to the knot That ties the bonds of peace. And now -- And now The summer steals again toward winter's sleep. The reaping time draws near -- ah, what to reap? And spring, that lurks beyond, comes hither -- how? . . . . . . . . Still, O my Country, while we may, look back! The blighted year cries from the charnel grass: Must breath of dying brothers wake the brass That thrills the call to arms? -- A blood-sered track Leads backward to that other August day Prowled by the still unglutted Minotaur; But we, who watch to slay that beast of War, Shall we hunt him or those he mangles? -- Say: For reason has its ire more just than hate; Imagination has its master hour, And pity its foil, and mother-love its power Mightier than blood-lust and more obdurate. My Country! poised in forward visioning, With pity, love and reason let us pray Our lives shall serve to cleanse this August day! -- . . . . . . . . The summer wanes: the ploughman comes with spring. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...D'ANNUNZIO by ERNEST HEMINGWAY 1915: THE TRENCHES by CONRAD AIKEN TO OUR PRESIDENT by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE HORSES by KATHARINE LEE BATES CHILDREN OF THE WAR by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE U-BOAT CREWS by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE RED CROSS NURSE by KATHARINE LEE BATES WAR PROFITS by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE UNCHANGEABLE by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN A CHILD AT THE WICKET by PERCY MACKAYE |
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