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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE SILENT TOAST, by FREDERICK GEORGE SCOTT Poet's Biography First Line: They stand with reverent faces Last Line: Are lit with a light divine. Alternate Author Name(s): Scott, F. G. Subject(s): Toasts; World War I - Casualties | |||
THEY stand with reverent faces, And their merriment give o'er, As they drink the toast to the unseen host Who have fought and gone before. It is only a passing moment In the midst of the feast and song, But it grips the breath, as the wing of death In a vision sweeps along. No more they see the banquet And the brilliant lights around; But they charge again on the hideous plain When the shell-bursts rip the ground. Or they creep at night, like panthers, Through the waste of No Man's Land, Their hearts afire with a wild desire, And death on every hand. And out of the roar and tumult, Or the black night loud with rain, Some face comes back on the fiery track And looks in their eyes again. And the love that is passing woman's, And the bonds that are forged by death, Now grip the soul with a strange control And speak what no man saith. The vision dies off in the stillness, Once more the tables shine, But the eyes of all in the banquet hall Are lit with a light divine. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE MORNING PAPER by KATHARINE LEE BATES FOR THE FALLEN (SEPTEMBER 1914) by LAURENCE BINYON TRAFALGAR SQUARE by ROBERT SEYMOUR BRIDGES 1914: 3. THE DEAD by RUPERT BROOKE 1914: 4. THE DEAD by RUPERT BROOKE BETWEEN THE LINES by WILFRID WILSON GIBSON RUPERT BROOKE by WILFRID WILSON GIBSON VAN ELSEN by FREDERICK GEORGE SCOTT |
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