Summary

Portrait of Richard Le Gallienne Richard Le Gallienne The Silk-Hat Soldier, and Other Poems in War Time

Red wine of the hearts of English soldiers dead,
Who ran to a wild death with laughing feet—
That we may sleep and drink and eat and cheat.
Ah! you brave few that fight for all the rest,
And die with smiling faces strangely blest,
Because you die for England—O to do
Something again for you,
In this great deed to have some little part;
To send so great a message from the heart
Of England that one man shall be as ten,
Hearing how England loves her Englishmen!
Ah! think you that a single gun is fired
We do not hear in England. Ah!
Source: Gutenberg

Portrait of Richard Le Gallienne Richard Le Gallienne The Silk-Hat Soldier, and Other Poems in War Time

If I love not England well enough for England to die.
I guess it strikes a chill somewhere, the bravest won't deny,
All that you love,
Away to shove,
And set your teeth to die;
But better dead,
When all is said,
Than lapped in peace to lie—
If we love not England well enough for England to die.
THE CRY OF THE LITTLE PEOPLES
The Cry of the Little Peoples went up to God in vain
Source: Gutenberg

Portrait of Richard Le Gallienne Richard Le Gallienne The Silk-Hat Soldier, and Other Poems in War Time

For this shall we break our hearts, for this shall our old men weep?
What gain in the day of battle—to the Russ, to the German, what gain,
The Czech, and the Pole, and the Finn, and the Schleswig Dane?
The Cry of the Little Peoples goes up to God in vain,
For the world is given over to the cruel sons of Cain;
The hand that would bless us is weak, and the hand that would break us is strong,
And the power of pity is nought but the power of a song.
The dreams that our fathers dreamed to-day are laughter and dust,
And nothing at all in the world is left for a man to trust
Source: Gutenberg

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