Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE SOLDIER, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: The soldier! - meek the title, yet Last Line: The captain's high command. Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F. Subject(s): Freedom; Monuments; Soldiers; War; Liberty | ||||||||
THE DEDICATION OF THE SOLDIERS' AND SAILORS' MONUMENT, INDIANAPOLIS, MAY 15, 1902 THE Soldier! -- meek the title, yet divine: Therefore, with reverence, as with wild acclaim, We fain would honor in exalted line The glorious lineage of the glorious name: The Soldier. -- Lo, he ever was and is, Our Country's high custodian, by right Of patriot blood that brims that heart of his With fiercest love, yet honor infinite, The Soldier -- within whose inviolate care The Nation takes repose, -- her inmost fane Of Freedom ever has its guardian there, As have her forts and fleets on land and main: The Heavenward Banner, as its ripples stream In happy winds, or float in languid flow, Through silken meshes ever sifts the gleam Of sunshine on its Sentinel below. The Soldier! -- Why, the very utterance Is music -- as of rallying bugles, blent With blur of drums and cymbals and the chants Of battle-hymns that shake the continent! -- The thunder-chorus of a world is stirred To awful, universal jubilee, -- Yet ever through it, pure and sweet, are heard The prayers of Womanhood, and Infancy. Even as a fateful tempest sudden loosed Upon our senses, so our thoughts are blown Back where The Soldier battled, nor refused A grave all nameless in a clime unknown. -- The Soldier -- though, perchance, worn, old and gray; The Soldier -- though, perchance, the merest lad, -- The Soldier -- though he gave his life away, Hearing the shout of "Victory," was glad; Ay, glad and grateful, that in such a cause His veins were drained at Freedom's holy shrine -- Rechristening the land -- as first it was, -- His blood poured thus in sacramental sign Of new baptism of the hallowed name "My Country" -- now on every lip once more And blest of God with still enduring fame. -- This thought even then The Soldier gloried o'er. The dying eyes upraised in rapture there, -- As, haply, he remembered how a breeze Once swept his boyish brow and tossed his hair, Under the fresh bloom of the orchard-trees -- When his heart hurried, in some wistful haste Of ecstasy, and his quick breath was wild And balmy-sharp and chilly-sweet to taste, -- And he towered godlike, though a trembling child! Again, through luminous mists, he saw the skies' Far fields white-tented; and in gray and blue And dazzling gold, he saw vast armies rise And fuse in fire -- from which, in swiftest view, The Old Flag soared, and friend and foe as one Blent in an instant's vivid mirage. . . . Then The eyes close smiling on the smiling sun That changed the seer to a child again. -- And, even so, The Soldier slept. -- Our own! -- The Soldier of our plaudits, flowers and tears, -- O this memorial of bronze and stone -- His love shall outlast this a thousand years! Yet, as the towering symbol bids us do, -- With soul saluting, as salutes the hand, We answer as The Soldier answered to The Captain's high command. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LOVE THE WILD SWAN by ROBINSON JEFFERS AFTER TENNYSON by AMBROSE BIERCE QUARTET IN F MAJOR by WILLIAM MEREDITH CROSS THAT LINE by NAOMI SHIHAB NYE EMANCIPATION by ELIZABETH ALEXANDER A BOY'S MOTHER by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY |
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