THESE were my friends; Strachey, you did not know them,
For they were simple, unaspiring men ;
No ordinary wind of chance could blow them
Within the range of your austerer ken.
They were most uninformed. They never even
So Ignorant and godless was their youth
Heard you expound., with reverences to Heaven,
The elements of biologic truth.
Had they but had the privilege to cluster
Around Gamaliel’s feet, they would have known
That hate and massacre also have their lustre,
And that man cannot live by Love alone.
But having no pillar of flame of your igniting
To guide by night, no pillar of cloud by day,
They thought War was an evil thing, and fighting
Filthy at best. So, thus deluded, they
Not seeing the war as a wise elimination
Or a cleansing purge, or a wholesome exercise,
Went out with mingled loathing and elation
Only because there towered before their eyes
England, an immemorial crusader,
A great dream -statue, seated and serene,
Who had seen much blood, and sons who had betrayed her,
But still shone out with hands and garments clean;
Summoning now with an imperious message
To one last fight that Europe should be free.
Whom, though it meant a swift and bitter passage,
They had to serve, for she served Liberty,
Romance and rhetoric! Yet with such nonsense nourished.
They faced the guns and the dead and the rats and the rains.
And all in a month, as summer waned, they perished;
And they had clear eyes, strong bodies, and some brains.
. . . . . . . . .
Strachey, these died. What need is there to mention
Anything more? What argument could give
A more conclusive proof of your contention ?
Strachey, these died, and men like you still live.
(John Collings Squire)
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Based on Topics: Night Poems, War & Peace Poems, Heaven Poems, Friendship Poems, Wisdom & Knowledge Poems, Truth Poems, Liberty & Freedom Poems, Romantic Love Poems, Brain Poems, Good & Evil Poems, Chance PoemsBased on Keywords: crusader, conclusive, igniting, uninformed, elimination, gamaliel, austerer, biologic, unaspiring, reverences, strachey