Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE SLAIN (IN THE BOER WAR), by WILLIAM WATSON



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE SLAIN (IN THE BOER WAR), by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Partners in silence, mates in noteless doom
Last Line: And cold adjudication of the dust.
Alternate Author Name(s): Watson, John William
Subject(s): Boer War; Death; South African War; Dead, The


PARTNERS in silence, mates in noteless doom,
Peers in oblivion's commonalty merged;
Unto like deeds by differing mandates urged,
And equalled in the unrespective tomb;
Leal or perfidious, cruel or ruthful, whom
Precipitate fate hath of your frailties purged;
Whom duly the impartial winds have dirged,
In autumn or the glorying vernal bloom:
Already is your strife become as nought;
Idle the bullet's flight, the bayonet's thrust,
The senseless cannon's dull, unmeaning word;
Idle your feud; and all for which ye fought
To this arbitrament of loam referred,
And cold adjudication of the dust.





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