Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SHOT DOWN, by JOEL T. ROGERS


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SHOT DOWN, by                    
First Line: Why did you send young larry out?
Last Line: You are too old to waste her days.
Subject(s): Soldiers; War


WHY did you send young Larry out?
Major, Major, tell me true,
Who knew so little of the wars
Where there was fearful work to do,
And where the red-eyed pirate ships
Go up and down with ravening lips.

Why did you send young Larry out?
There were brave men who stood near by,
Who had brought down their tens and tens,
And knocked the fleets from out the sky
When the circuses went down in rings
Before the thunder of their wings.

Why did you send young Larry out?
Who still had all, and all to learn.
Was it that he might come an ace,
And so a silver medal earn,
And tread where the immortals tread
Scarce less beatified than the dead?

Why did you send young Larry out?
Major, Major, tell me true.
For her whose hair is cloudy bright,
Whose mouth is of the honey dew,
And in whose arms young Larry lay,
Dreaming what dreams you cannot say.

Young Larry's soul, I am quite sure,
Will never rise to fright your dreams,
Since he meets the maidens of Paradise,
And sleeps by the sunset's silver streams.
And she, she goes her devious ways:
You are too old to waste her days.





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