Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, NOT HOW THEY LIVED, BUT HOW THEY DIED, by WILLIAM A. PHELON


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

NOT HOW THEY LIVED, BUT HOW THEY DIED, by                    
First Line: Sweet is the sleep of those whose lives were hurled
Last Line: "not how they lived—but 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 Were—aye, and Were Not,
And writes this sentence, with victorious pride—
"Not how they lived—but only how they died!"





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


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