Classic and Contemporary Poetry
NOT HOW THEY LIVED, BUT HOW THEY DIED, by WILLIAM A. PHELON First Line: Sweet is the sleep of those whose lives were hurled Last Line: "not how they livedbut only how they died!" Subject(s): Death; Sacrifices; Soldiers; World War I; Dead, The; First World War | ||||||||
SWEET is the sleep of those whose lives were hurled Into the hellfire to defend the world The men who stood like lions in the path To balk the Devil in his crimson wrath They died, outnumbered, crushed, and trampled down They died like tigers in each shattered town "Where poppies bloom," they gave their best, their all, In trust that He, who sees the sparrow's fall, Would gaze, with clear and calm, approving eyes, On the great measure of their sacrifice! There, on the field, they died. The summer rains Will bring new brilliance to the scar-crossed plains, While tender women seek the graves and weep Above the brave who rest in hero-sleep. And the white crosses cancel all the past Of those who went out on the battle-blast The good, the evil, that their lives had known Are all forgotten at the Great White Throne; The Winged Recorder, with a sweeping blot, Erases Things that Wereaye, and Were Not, And writes this sentence, with victorious pride "Not how they livedbut only how they died!" | 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 FOOL THERE WAS by WILLIAM A. PHELON |
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