Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, NIGHT OFF GALLIPOLI: 6. A CANADIAN VOICE, by WILLIAM ALEXANDER PERCY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

NIGHT OFF GALLIPOLI: 6. A CANADIAN VOICE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: God, god, how well they meant
Last Line: Give them, o god, not heroes' hearts, but brains!
Subject(s): Freedom; God; Mythology - Classical; Nations; Sea; Liberty; Ocean


God, God, how well they meant,
How utterly they failed!
Why wilt Thou give us strength,
Courage and fortitude,
But leave us without reason, impotent?

They poured us out like water.
The thirsty ground still drank,
And still they poured; until
The hills above the sea
Were red as sunset, but unconquered still.

Such blood, so young, so proud!
No Homer will rise up
To sing their deeds; for deeds
There be too great for song,
And heroes must be few to stir the rage.

All Canada was Ajax,
And India, to a man,
As fierce as Hector was!
The young isles of the south
Blazed like Achilles when they killed his friend.

And all for what? For nothing!
We, who in the west
Had crossed perhaps the Rhine,
Have crossed but Lethe here,
And won but failure for our only fame.

There never was a cause
So worthy to be won!
If France and England die,
Freedom and faith are dead --
Give them, O God, not heroes' hearts, but brains!





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