STRONG, young and healthy—so the whole world says, Gazing upon me as I walk the street— Perfection physical, from flashing eye To the firm arches of my sturdy feet. No one dependent on my working hands, No aged mother and no feeble wife, Not one to hold me from the battle-grip, No one whose life is woven with my life. The little children mock me as I pass— Young men in uniform cast mocking jeer— The women turn their scornful eyes aside, The pavements and the cobbles hiss and sneer. Despised by all, and outcast of the town, I slink in shame upon the daily scene— And, as the lepers once were driven forth, The city cries: "Begone—unclean, unclean!" Yet I have TRIED. Day after day I seek The stations whence young men come out in glee, Passed and approved—and the stern surgeons tell Me to go forth—there is no place for me! "Organic lesions—not a chance that you Could ever fight—we can not take you—No! We're sorry, boy," they say, with pitying eyes, And I, cast out, once more pace to and fro— Rejected—useless—yet the patriot world Thinks me a cringing cur, whose coward whine Has kept him from the trenches—God above, Was ever crucifixion such as mine? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MARRIAGE A LA MODE: SONG by JOHN DRYDEN THE CITY AT THE END OF THINGS by ARCHIBALD LAMPMAN KIT CARSON'S RIDE by CINCINNATUS HEINE MILLER SONNET: AT STRATFORD-UPON-AVON by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH LAURENCE BLOOMFIELD IN IRELAND: 1. LORD CRASHTON by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM PEARLS OF THE FAITH: 80, 81. GHAFOOR, MUNTAKIM by EDWIN ARNOLD AUTUMN by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD THE APOLOGY OF THE BISHOPS IN ANSWER TO BONNER'S GHOST by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD |