Classic and Contemporary Poetry
1917 - THE WAR CLASS, by GEROID TANQUARY ROBINSON First Line: Down the long white road beneath the / moon Last Line: One great humanity? Subject(s): Guns; Military Education; Soldiers; War; Youth; Military Schools | ||||||||
I DOWN the long white road beneath the moon, Like good friends arm in arm, come memories Of four great golden years. The smoke-dimmed lights The fists that beat out time to roaring songs Until the table rocksthe hearty grip When hand strikes hand at parting. Swirling shapes Of musicmelody of movement and Of glancing colorsmiles that brim the night. A cone of yellow light thrown sharply down Upon a table piled with books, where men Philosophize, and smoke, for half the night And melt together all that they have learned. A great arena, banked with tier on tier Of staring faces, bent upon the field Where ancient enemies are met again. And then the goal! The vast upheaving throng Of Cardinal victors, firing the dusk. II And through the dusk the road of mystery That leads away into the future. There, Behind the silver haze, are all the rare, Untasted joys we dream of. Firesides Alight at eveningchildren's voiceshome. New acres brought to harvest. Caravans Grown rich with all the plunder of the world. Great cities decked with laces all of light. World courts of even handed justice. Schools Where children of a kindlier race Learn life. New mercy and new knowledge joined To put the fight for bread behind us all. A people free to sing, and not ashamed Of singing, or of life. Firesides Alight at eveningchildren's voiceshome. III And while we dream, the hammer stroke of guns Is forging out the future. All the world Beats up the drums of death. Hot hymns of hate Are man's new musicbattle is his grave And out of skulls he builds his monuments. And still we dream, and dull ourselves with dreams! In years to come we will do this and that! Tomorrowalways thustomorrow Fools! Can we not see that our tomorrows are But echoes of this vast and thunderous NOW? The thronging, silent centuries look down The ghosts of unborn stars wait breathlessly As for a new creationor for night. From victoryfrom black defeatfrom death From hate that shrieks for every sacrifice And love denying none, shall nothing come? Or out of chaos shall our Youth create One great humanity? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AMATEURS by GEROID TANQUARY ROBINSON AT THE FRONT by GEROID TANQUARY ROBINSON A LETTER TO HER HUSBAND, ABSENT UPON PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT by ANNE BRADSTREET WRITTEN UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF DELIRIUM by WILLIAM COWPER ALEXANDER CRUMMELL - DEAD by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR THE CAT OF CATS by WILLIAM BRIGHTY RANDS UNDERWOODS: BOOK 2: 6. THE SPAEWIFE by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON |
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