THE battery grides and jingles, Mile succeeds to mile; Shaking the noonday sunshine The guns lunge out awhile, And then are still awhile. We amble along the highway; The reeking, powdery dust Ascends and cakes our faces With a striped, sweaty crust. Under the still sky's violet The heat throbs on the air ... The white road's dusty radiance Assumes a dark glare. With a head hot and heavy, And eyes that cannot rest, And a black heart burning In a stifled breast, I sit in the saddle, I feel the road unroll, And keep my senses straightened Toward to-morrow's goal. There, over unknown meadows Which we must reach at last, Day and night thunders A black and chilly blast. Heads forget heaviness, Hearts forget spleen, For by that mighty winnowing Being is blown clean. Light in the eyes again, Strength in the hand, A spirit dares, dies, forgives, And can understand! And, best! Love comes back again After grief and shame, And along the wind of death Throws a clean flame. The battery grides and jingles, Mile succeeds to mile; Suddenly battering the silence The guns burst out awhile ... I lift my head and smile. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DIRGE (1) by RALPH WALDO EMERSON EPITAPH ON AN ARMY OF MERCENARIES by ALFRED EDWARD HOUSMAN THE OLD LOBSTERMAN by JOHN TOWNSEND TROWBRIDGE A SALON SCENE by ANTON ALEXANDER VON AUERSPERG NO-MORE-FEAR by WILLIAM ROSE BENET IN WILTSHIRE; SUGGESTED BY POINTS OF SIMILARITY WITH THE SOMME COUNTRY by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN |