Various

Name: More songs by the fighting men. Soldiers poets: second series
Author: Various

More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

Summary

“More songs by the fighting men. Soldiers poets: second series”, published in 1917, is a work by Various. It explores elements such as Erskine MacDonald, Fair Truth and life.

Quotes from More songs by the fighting men… (Various)

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ A young life, as I take it; just a lad—
(How cold it blows; and that grey sky, how sad!) —
And yet: "For Country"—so a man should die:
Comrade unknown, good rest to you!—Good-bye!
They're burying their dead!—I wonder now:
A wife?—or mother? Mother it must be—
In some trim home that fronts the English sea.
(A sea-coast country: that the badges show.)
And she?—I sense her grief, I feel her tears!
"This, then, the garnered harvest of my years!"
And he? . . . "For Country, dear, a man must die!"
Comrade unknown, good rest to you!—Good-bye!
It's reeded: he is buried! Comrade, sleep! ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ My dream-path led through the Furnace, and Pain, and Fire—
⁠I could not stay nor turn from the road in flight—
But I knew it would lead me back past the Hill of Desire
⁠To the warm hearth-stones in the City of Quiet Delight.
The Pedlar
THERE'S a broken, lame old pedlar a-limping down the street,
Cold sorrow at his heart, a hard road beneath his feet,
Lifeless walls around him and a leaden sky above
As he searches through the city for the face of his lost Love.
Red and blue and golden leaps the flame of his desire ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ Fair Truth, who stands with grave unfaltering gaze,
Reading where late my labouring pen hath sped
In halting periods o'er my checkered days,
Let me not write so of the present joy
Of my home-coming that one could infer
A happiness complete, without alloy
Of my sad Knowledge, Wisdom's minister.
Do I not know the bitter tinge to Life
Which Fate hath in your chaliced mother-heart
Mixed with maternal sweetness—the sharp knife
That stabs your peace—the cloud that doth impart
⁠A darkness to each day—a child's affliction,
⁠Bounding your every joy with stern restriction? ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ The fresh, cold wind of dawn blows on my face
As in the sun's raw heart I swiftly fly,
⁠And watch the seas glide by.
Scarce human seem I, moving through the skies,
And far removed from warlike enterprise—
⁠Like some great gull on high
Whose white and gleaming wings beat on through space.
Then do I feel with God quite, quite alone,
High in the virgin morn, so white and still,
⁠And free from human ill:
My prayers transcend my feeble earth-bound plaints—
As though I sang among the happy Saints
⁠With many a holy thrill—
As though the glowing sun were God's bright Throne. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ All the eternal splendour of your deeds.
⁠Thus may I crown a life of little worth
⁠With the rich praise of her who gave me birth.
These gifts you gave on God's behalf, I wonder
How they are mine above all my deserving—
My life's path cluttered is with many a blunder
Nor Duty-guided in a course unswerving,
As lies your own in beauteous symmetry
Behind, beyond the rise of the distant hill
Where finds the daylight first all that of me
Does make the man, your son, heart, mind and will. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ Danger affronted or but lay in lurk—
Danger of death in this mad war of men,
Danger of sin in Life's worse war of work
And play, shadow and light, quick tears, brief joys:
You knew Life's sweetness when you gave me birth
And shared my infant bliss in stingless toys,
Alas! that since then joy has been in dearth
⁠And grief has loosed so many of those tears
⁠Which grew your Faith and Love beyond the years. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ You hold eternity in fee.
Spring in Picardy
WHEN earth was bare, and sky a murky pall,⁠
⁠And snow and sleet filled all the miles and days
⁠That held us two asunder, all my gaze
Was bounded by an impenetrable wall
Of chill, numbed, burdened hours, that rose so tall
⁠I only dimly knew that your fair ways
⁠Lay far beyond it, where desire could raise
To bring you nearer, no sufficient call.
Ah God! that blank was better borne than this
⁠Flushed wantonness of May, these maiden leaves
⁠That bare themselves to bathe in the ardent moon.
⁠There is a false note in the wood-dove's croon ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ One girl the less to greet the coming spring,
⁠And pluck the summer's flow'rs.
It is not much: one little coffin made
⁠And one more little shroud.
One hush the more within the room's dark shade,
⁠One less word said aloud.
It is not much: one prayer the less to God,
⁠From Whom all prayers have birth,
One scar the more across the fresh green sod,
⁠One shovel more of earth. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ Red, for glowing embers of a vagabond's night fire,
Blue, to seek the deep unf athomed glory of the sea,
And gold for Northern sunsets, wealth of beggars such as he.
The fire and sea and sunset are the face of his lost Love,
His heart is plucked by stronger chords than ever cities wove,
But, buried 'twixt the pavement grey, grey walls and smoke-hid skies
In a closely leaded coffin the old pedlar's lost love lies. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ Is it strife of a million years that have bled
⁠Her heart's life, and set Death's frosty sheen in her place?
Is she watching our strife, the tired moon? Can she see
⁠How the earth's face is scarred, her life ebbing fast? ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ A singer once, I now am fain to weep.
⁠Within my soul I feel strange music swell,
Vast chants of tragedy too deep—too deep
⁠For my poor lips to tell.
The Secret
WHAT is the secret—the secret
⁠That lies at the heart of it all—
The surge of the stars, the cry of the wind,
⁠And the beat of the sea,
And the surge, and the cry, and the beat of the soul in me? ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ I see
The hosts of Righteousness go forth to slay
The armies of a people that would turn
From all that makes man's nobler soul to burn,
And yet I feel as now I take my way
⁠My Immortality!
Finis Coronat Opus
THOUGH I have lived as one whose soul is dead
Nor ever touched my heart-strings to awake.
Some harmony of love that else had fled
From where diviner semblance it might take;
Though I have scorned to hear when there has called
The sterner voice within that bade me rise
And spurn the sloth that held my will enthralled
And veiled my loftier vision to the skies ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ And the blue blood runs in your veins;
While I, alas! am but of common birth
Whom war is splashing with its crimson stains.
A soldier who has taken Honour's vow
To share the grandest task on God's wide earth. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ Bursts forth a laugh, a shout of drunken glee!
⁠France, 1917.
Rain
AH! when it rains all day
And the sky is a mist
That creeps by chillily
Where sun once kissed,
Like death pale shroud,
My soul cries out aloud
In hopeless misery. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ In empty sky, still tinged with wondrous blue,
⁠The full moon hung, displaying royally
Her cold and naked beauty, as she threw
⁠Her path of silver moonbeams on the sea.
God showed me then, that, if we learn to love
⁠The beauties that He sends us in our day,
More lovely yet will night celestial prove—
⁠The perfect calm of passions passed away. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ We have feared old Death, but now have we learned our error,
⁠Seeing him there in the mire us so kindly await—
⁠A comrade befitting the hour of a world's fate,
And we look him full in the eyes; we are rid of our last terror.
True that Death is an ill, but the worse ills are many ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ And haunt the country whence it drew
⁠The life that has not sped nor failed.
Perhaps beside some lonely copse
⁠A brook would flow with less of ease,
The brooding wind that sways the tops
⁠Murmur more plaintive in the trees. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ And mankind dreams of slaughter? What wild glee
⁠Has filled your throbbing throats with sound, until
Its strains are poured from every bush and tree,
⁠And sad hearts swell with hope, and fierce eyes fill?
The world is stark with blood and hate—but ye—
⁠Sing on! Sing on! in careless ecstasy. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ Life heightened by new splendour, poise, surprise,
New colour flushing deep its paling cheek,
New wonder looking from its tired eyes.
Time's brought a rare patine to old Romance—
Death has an ancient dignity in France. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ Which flows around the heart of Life,
And know its joy—and know its agony.
Daring to follow impulse
That any God Himself would not resist.
Stand back!
You weaklings of the world
Boasting the name of men. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ And the red of the west is to me like the redness of blood.
The village is still as the heat,
From the ruined houses start
The rats across the street.—
There is never another sound,
For the guns are silent to-day,
And the endless lines of men that are bound
For the place of death and the nameless mound
Have taken another way. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ Not unillumined is, pass by and say:
Here lies the clay inanimate by fire;
Here stands the empty stall that has no choir;
Here die the lives from which the God has fled.
Behold! The Christ steals by with bleeding head. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ Men shall cry,
⁠"This was a nation marvellously wrought!"
II
There came a voice from out the darkness crying—
⁠A pleading voice, the voice of one in thrall—
"Come, ye who pass—oh, heed ye not my sighing?
⁠Come and deliver! Hear, oh hear my call!
For when the invader stood before my gate
⁠Demanding passage through with haughty tone,
A voice cried loud, 'Wilt thou endure this fate?
⁠Better have death than live when honour's flown!'
And so my children now lie slain by him
⁠I had not wronged; with strife my land is riven ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ The sky above may weep, and seldom smile,
And mirky be the frown upon thy brow.
Yet O! thy mountain woods and endless mile
Of sea, sing joy unbound, and life, that now
Expansive breathes the freshness of the free. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ R. C. G. DARTFORD
Captain, attached to Portuguese Expeditionary Force, France
A Soldier's Question: Spring, 1917
CURSE I the Spring that God has sent
Raising such discord in my soul ? . . .
'Twas fitter when the winter's blast
Could lash my spirit to the mast
And send me drugged by brute control
To battle with a grim content!
Then Death took hold on the neck of Life
And Earth's rough scalp lay touzled and scarred,
And the winter-scream swept round me fierce—
The softer visions to disperse—
While stripped by storms I stood on guard
Cleaving the wind with keener knife. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ Of Blood, through which our fathers ofttimes trod.
And we must wait; for unto them alone
The Truth is naked who themselves, ahead
Of all their fellow-men, away have thrown
Their Life, and on the battlefield lie dead. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ Wander along life's dewy marge again,
Plucking the flowers a-drip with morning rain.
Within a drop of dew is sphered the world;
All mystery within a rose lies furled;
Tempests within a murmuring shell up-curled. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ Then Death, the wrecker, get his harvest in.
Oh, ill it is, when men lose all, to win;
Grief though it be to die, 'tis grief yet more
To live and count the dear dead comrades o'er.
·⁠·⁠·⁠·⁠·⁠·
Peace. After all you died not. We've no fear
But that, long ages hence, you will be near—
A thought by night—on the warm wind a breath,
Making for courage, putting old Death,
Living wherever men are not afraid
Of aught but making bravery a parade. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ The little voice pleads on:
⁠A lark high singing o'er the barrage blast,
⁠A moonbeam on the lake's dark bosom cast,
A whisper from a thousand mouths anon,
"Lo! beauty, beauty may not, cannot cease,
And beauty's thrice-starred crown is peace, is peace." ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ As might a drunkard spill his wares in mart!
Time and sweet Order have forsaken men,
So near Eternal seems the Night's foul sway:
We ask of Life: "Has Chaos come again,
With Ruin, and Confusion, and Decay?" ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ And stood upon the hillside, where the oaks
Have stood and talked of God in the twilight
For centuries, and cracked their ancient jokes
⁠Over our heads; those veterans know more
⁠Of God than we have learned with all our lore. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ The pale-eyed stars already one by one
Steal softly forth to look upon the sun,
⁠So proudly parting. While from island-nest,
⁠Deep-shadowed cove, torn slope, or purple crest,
All things give praise to God in unison. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ All bathed in sunlight and the scent of flowers,
Where Time has fall'n asleep on Nature's breast,
And none may mark the tread of passing hours.
And in the fairest part of all, that seems
The very home of all things pure and good,
A woman sits with half-closed eyes, and dreams
In ecstasy of perfect motherhood. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ Through their clutching fingers—then dreaming clover,
And corn amazed at your passing dash
Over the bridge as the water glides black
Darker than death in a dream: then pales.
The enchanted ground from the village slides back.
Voices and lights: and the magic fails. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ With calling up each minute
⁠Those visions none forget,
All that the word has in it—
⁠For each man things apart.
We watched our land go from us,
⁠The sea stretched far, unknown;
To all it glowed with promise. . . .
⁠I watch the sea alone. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ I HEARD the voice of Spring come softly pleading
⁠Across the fresh and breathing wold to-day:
The sun, set free from cloudy bonds, was speeding
⁠To greet the earth with each impassioned ray.
Wide-flung my casement in the cool I listened! ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ ERIC CHILMAN
Private, East Yorks
After-days
WHEN the last gun has long withheld⁠
⁠Its thunder, and its mouth is sealed,
Strong men shall drive the furrow straight
⁠On some remembered battlefield. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ Claim nothing slain in your cult, except
What I would less than value—all the true,
Enduring things in me have upward leapt,
⁠Striving to do your honour. So do I
⁠In humble pride my voice lift heaven-high. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ As in the cruel shock of arms
Trembled a sweet expectancy.
Once, in the days of barren Art,
When ebbed the tide of Beauty's pow'r,
Nature bestirred a poet's heart
To give the world a passioned hour ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ ARMEL O'CONNOR
Private, East Anglian Field Ambulance
Violet
I WOULD throw to magnificent doom
White roses at her feet.
Should she tread out the life of each bloom,
What fate could be more sweet? ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ Dying, comfortless, alone,
Lord of Hosts, we cry to Thee,
⁠Libera nos Domine!
And when night's shadows round us close,
God of Battles, succour those,
Those whose hearts shall ever burn
For loved ones, never to return ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ On how to fill the Boche with fear,
⁠On Frightfulness, or "What is Hate?"
How some bombs burst long ere they land,
⁠Others, the choicest, as they fall;
How some dissect the thrower's hand,
⁠While most will never burst at all. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ To height and girth and spread of largest span;
The sweet and crimson riot of the rose;
And wheat, the bread and sacrament of man.
Clay built our homes, and towns of civil folk
Where born were manners, arts and liberty;
Clay are the pipes whence age can blow but smoke,
And children orbs of bliss and vanity. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ We can play pitch and toss with our lives as a boy with a penny.
We have spent ourselves to win us a lady's favour,
⁠But now the spending is grown to a leaping fire,
⁠And winning for ourselves seems but a strange desire ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ It is only reasonable to suppose that moments of crisis causing a great emotional strain should find their issue in verse. Poetry is, after all, the natural outlet for those who feel deeply, and if hitherto the whole range of feeling and sentiment has been kept under lock and key, owing to a modesty and shame-facedness extremely characteristic of Englishmen, it is not altogether surprising that even those who thought themselves dumb should at such supreme moments suddenly find a tongue. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Various, More songs by the fighting men… (1917)

“ Erskine Macdonald, a publisher who has interested himself deeply in this department of literature, produced a series of little books of Georgian verse and Soldier Songs, which have a distinct character of their own, and often astonish us by their fecundity and their power. Sometimes, as might be expected, they are n little rough and uncouth; sometimes they grate on the aesthetic sense by their deliberate disdain of beauty; but they never fail for want of strength. ”

Various

Summary

Quotes from More songs by the fighting men… (Various)

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