Milford High School - Oak Lily and Ivy Yearbook (Milford, MA)

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18 THE OAK, LILY AND IVY. Again we hear him urging England, and indirectly her allies, to make “iron sacrifice of body, will, and soul” that the world may conquer the foes which, as Drinkwater says in his poem “We Willed It Not,” have thrown to God the “tumult of their blasphemies.” I regret that there is little opportunity to speak of the poetry of Lawrence Binyon whose praise of Edith Cavell and her “soul so crystal clear” rises into the realms of true poetry, as well as his lines “To the Fallen” who are as the stars “that shall be bright when we are dust.” Especially interesting to Americans is Alan Seeger, since he was the first American soldier-poet to lose his life in France. Three weeks after the b eginning of the war he joined the Foreign Legion. It is interesting to read that because of his aloofness and reserve he was highly unpopular with his comrades, who voted that he be requested to transfer himself to another division, which, however, he re¬ fused to do. In this he is in direct contrast with the well loved Kilmer, whose works will be taken up by a later speaker. His literary efforts during the war are centered in a few short poems for there was little leisure time in army life to devote to writing, and though these may not equal, from the standpoint of workmanship, those he published before the war, there is no doubt but what they will be dearer to the hearts of men and just as widely read. The first poem written while he was in France was a vivid descrip¬ tion of the battle of the Aisne 1914-15 in which w e find the thought inspired with¬ in him by the war: “There we drained deeper the deep cup of life, And on sublimer summits came to learn, After soft things, the terrible and stern, After sweet Love, the majesty of Strife.” His last but best loved and hence best known poem is entitled “I Have a Rendezvous with Death.” This poem seems to be a premonition of his death which occurred a short while later and took from the world a man whose possi¬ bilities were very great and whose death caused a loss to the literary world which cannot be estimated. As we all know, he kept his “Rendezvous.” “God knows ’twere better to be deep Pillowed in silk and scented down, But I’ve a rendezvous with death At midnight in some flaming town, When Spring trips north again this year, And I to my pledged word am true, I shall not fail that rendezvous.” As Seeger’s work is finished, likewise is ended the labor of the Canadian Lieu¬ tenant-Colonel John McCrae. His poem “In Flanders Fields” is perhaps the most widely read and admired of the war verses. In this poem he hears the mes¬ sage of the dead whose voices urge the living to carry on: “We are the dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved; and now we lie In Flanders Fields.

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THE OAK, LILY AND IVY. 17 our masterpieces or works of art, for the writers of much of the war poetry did not allow their passions to cool before noting their thoughts in verse. In “Songs from the Trenches,” a collection of verses written in France by the American Soldiers, one observes that the subjects with which these writers dealt are many and wide in scope, for all minds did not turn to deep or profound thoughts and dwell with lofty subjects among the clouds of inspired imagination. A great many of these writers kept to surface thoughts, dealing with the disagree¬ able or humorous experiences in camp and trench life, though many more sang of the sunset, the beauty of patriotism, or the courage of France and her great loss. One soldier voices the emotion of his comrades in “Farewell, America!” as they watch their native land fade from sight, while “the mist that rises is not rain.” Some feel themselves to be tiny units in a gigantic whole and yet units giving to the utmost of their service, as evidenced in one private’s lines. “Only a Number.” Many, doubtless with little ones in America, sing to the unfortunate child victims of the war, as does the writer of the following lines which close his poem inspired by the sight of a tombstone raised in honor of two small children who had died long before the war: “Rest you, Pierre and Jucundine, On your little grave, serene; Rest you till the Judgment blast Brings the Hun to book at last— Calls the Hun to answer for Wrongs to children done in war! Wrongs you’ve neither known nor seen, Happy Pierre and Juncundine!” Passing to those of more humorous trend, one finds that the army fare forms the basis for many verses, as does “the personification of Fate, the redoubtable Censor man.” By far the greater number of poems, however, express a depth of patriotism which could have been born of experience alone. The majority of the writers re¬ joice that the glory of a death on the battlefield should be theirs. This feeling is reflected in the poem, “Facing the Shadows” by Private Grundish, winner of the first prize offered in the New York Herald’s Literary Competition in which were a thousand entries. “Better in one ecstatic epic day To strike a blow for Glory and Truth With ardent, singing heart to toss away In Freedom’s holy cause my eager youth, Than bear as years pass one by one, The knowledge of a sacred task undone.” Before passing on to the poetry of Alan Seeger and Robert Service, let us pause to listen to the voices of some of those writers who more nearly reach the goal of perfection and whose poems are more apt to succeed as works of art. We hear Kipling in his poem “The Choice” in which he imagines the spirit of America making her “eternal choice between good and evil” : “In the Gates of Death rejoice! We see and hold the good— Bear witness, Earth, we have made our choice For Freedom’s brotherhood.”

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19 THE OAK, LILY AND IVY. Take up our quarrel with the foe! To you, from failing hands, we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high! If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders Fields.” One of the most promising of young English poets was Rupert Brooke, who met his death bravely while with the British Mediterranean Expeditionary Force less than a year after his entrance into the war as a volunteer. In his poem “The Dead” he voices the debt owed to those who, pouring out “the red sweet wine of youth,” made their country “rarer gifts than gold.” “Blow, bugles, blow! They brought us, for our dearth, Holiness, lacked so long, and Love, and Pain. Honour has come back, as a king, to earth, And paid his subjects with a royal wage; And Nobleness walks in our ways again; And we have come into our heritage.” Another poet whose works are especially moving is Robert W. Service, who speaking as a Red Cross man was able to see and understand! the struggles of the soldier of to-day and to interpret them. His admiration for the men who died willingly in the cause of glory and his tender sympathy for the soldiers maimed and shattered in the great war are realized after reading the group of his poems entitled the “Rhymes of a Red Cross Man.” In his poem “Wounded” he reveals to us the effect of war upon a man’s soul. “Ay, War, they say, is hell; it’s heaven too, It lets a man discover what he’s worth. It takes his measure, shows what he can do, Gives him a joy like nothing else on earth. It fires in him a flame that otherwise Would flicker out, these drab, discordant days. It teaches him in pain and sacrifice, Faith, fortitude, grim courage past all praise.” Robert Service’s last lines in his ow n collection of poems will make an alto¬ gether fitting conclusion to this brief review of the poetry of the war and contains the explanation of the high courage which can be found under the surface of all true poetry. From “L’Envoi” : “Oh spacious days of glory and of grieving! Oh sounding hours of lustre and of loss! Let us be glad we lived you, still believing The God who gave the cannon gave the Cross. Let us be sure amid these seething passions, The lusts of blood and hate our souls abhor: The Power that Order out of Chaos fashions Smites fiercest in the wrath-red forge of War. Have faith ! Fight on ! Amid the battle-hell Love triumphs, Freedom beacons, all is well.” Marion Huff, ’21.