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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ROMANCE, by NEIL MUNRO Poet's Biography First Line: Old orchard crofts of picardy Last Line: "when we three march again!" Subject(s): World War I; First World War | |||
OLD orchard crofts of Picardy, In the high warm winds of May, Tossed into blossomed billowings, And spattered the roads with spray. Over the earth the scudding cloud, And the laverock whistling high, Lifted the drooping heart of the lad At one bound to the sky. France! France! and the old romance Came over him like a spell; Homesickness and his weariness Shook from him then and fell; For he was again with d'Artagnan; With Alan Breck and d'Artagnan; And the pipes before him gleefully Were playing airs of Pan. Through dust that in a mist uprose From under the tramping feet, He saw old storied places, dim In the haze of the summer heat. Menace and ambush, wounds and death, Lurked in the ditch and wood, But he, high-breasted, walked in joy With a glorious multitude; Great hearts that never perish, Nor grow old with the aches of Time, Marched through the morning with him, All in a magic clime; But loved of all was d'Artagnan, And Alan the kith of kings, Fond comrades of his childhood's days, Still on their wanderings. From miry clefts of the wintry plain He leapt with his platoon, The morion on his forehead, And the soul of him at noon; With head high to the hurricane He walked, and in his breast He knew himself immortal, And that death was but a jest. A smile was on his visage When they found him where he fell, The gallant old companions, In an amaranthine dell. "Lad o' my heart!" cried Alan Breck, "Well done thy first campaign!" "Sleep thou till morn," said d'Artagnan, "When we three march again!" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...D'ANNUNZIO by ERNEST HEMINGWAY 1915: THE TRENCHES by CONRAD AIKEN TO OUR PRESIDENT by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE HORSES by KATHARINE LEE BATES CHILDREN OF THE WAR by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE U-BOAT CREWS by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE RED CROSS NURSE by KATHARINE LEE BATES WAR PROFITS by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE UNCHANGEABLE by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN LOCHABER NO MORE by NEIL MUNRO |
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