Show V 4 e 1 i 4 41 k r i a M C Z I j y w t r i k 4 PL r y n A 4 p v. v l 3 f By ELMO ELl SCOTT WATSON VATSON Released by Western Newspaper Union N A world aflame with war the thoughts of Americans on onI I I IN Armistice Day 1940 inevitably turn to that November I day 22 years ago when World War I ended In Arlington national cemetery near Washington stands the symbol of our participation in that conflict the conflict the Tomb of the Unknown Sol- Sol I dier One of our greatest g patriotic shrines it is not only a memorial to those whose graves in foreign soil are marked Unknown but in a larger sense it is also a a- monument to the who gave their lives in that earlier fight against the threat of dictatorial dictatorial dictatorial dicta dicta- power Among them were a few who unknowingly erected memorials to themselves which seem destined to be as enduring as the white marble of the tomb in Arlington For they were vere the soldier poets who vho before a bullet or shell fragment wrote Finis to their careers composed some sorn bit of deathless verse which is now and always will be associated with their names In 1936 when Frederic W. W compiled an anthology of poems by poets who were killed in 1914 to 1918 his book The Valiant Muse contained the work of 59 young Englishmen and Ameri Ameri- cans All of these 59 are known to a few poetry-lovers poetry perhaps half of them are familiar names to students of literature but to the speaking English-speaking world generally generally generally gen gen- four of their names have become as familiar as the names of famous bards who sang in earlier earlier earlier ear ear- lier and more peaceful times They are two Americans Alan AJan Seeger and Joyce Kilmer an Englishman Rupert Brooke and anda a Canadian John McCrae Although each of the four wrote considerable verse in each case there is one poem which is inevitably inevitably inevitably in in- and invariably associated associated asso asso- associated with the name of its au au- au- au thor To think of Alan Seeger is isto isto isto to think of I III Have a Rendezvous With Death which was prophetic prophet prophet- ic of the fate of the poet if not of the fate of the poem Seeger was wasa a young Harvard graduate who was studying in Paris at the outbreak outbreak outbreak out out- break of the war in 1914 and who enlisted in the French Foreign Legion Wounded in action he was recuperating in a French hospital when he wrote the poem which made him famous It was wasI I have a rendezvous with death At some disputed barricade When spring comes round with rustling shade And apple blossoms fill the air I have a rendezvous with death When spring brings back blue days and fair It may be he shall take my hand And lead me Into his dark land And close my eyes and quench my breath It may truly be I shall pass him still I have a rendezvous with death On some Orne scarred slope of battered hill When spring comes round again this year And the first meadow flowers appear God Cod knows better to be deep Pillowed In silk sUk and scented down Where love throbs out in blissful sleep Pulse nigh to pulse and breath to breath Where bushed hushed awakenings are dear But Ive I've a rendezvous with death At midnight In tn some flaming town When spring trips north again this year And AndI I to my pledged word and true I shall not fall fail that rendezvous Back in service again in 1916 Seeger was invited to write a poem and read it at the Memorial day ceremony in Paris which had been arranged for the American volunteers who had died for France Seeger worked feverishly feverish feverish- ly to finish the poem in time Memorial day came but it brought no word to Seeger that his application for leave of absence absence absence ab ab- ab- ab sence to go to Paris for the ceremony ceremony ceremony cere cere- mony had been granted Later it was learned that a careless clerk had confused Memorial day with the other American patriotic holiday of Independence day and had obtained the leave of absence for that date But Seeger was not destined to enjoy his leave on Independence I day for he had a rendezvous with death which he could not r ri fail to keep On July 4 1916 1916 there I r was a burst of German machine h tun un fire at eri BelloY-eri en Belloy-en-Santerre and f one of the men who went down inthe in inthe inthe the hail of death was the young soldier There is a touch of pathos in inthe inthe inthe the fact that Alan Seeger will keep his rendezvous with death for all eternity in an unmarked grave Several months later his regiment returned to en Belloy-en- to find that the entire landscape had been so changed by bombardment that not even the scarred slope of battered hill where he died could be recognized recognized recognized rec rec- and all efforts since then to identify the site of his burial place have been unsuccessful Like Seeger Rupert Brooke wrote a poem that was prophetic of his death and that contributed most to his fame Those who BALLAD OF BARDS AND ACES I wonder in what star star flowered nook Young Alan Seeger sings his song song song- In what EI Elysium Rupert Brooke Breathes forth his music all aU day long Ions For from a world that fights with Wrong Does Byron dream of Freedoms Freedom's sway And Keats and Shelley Join the throng throns Where sings each bard of cf yesterday yesterday yester da day Say where does docs brave soar Above the haunts of earU earthly y men Or where beyond he the cannons cannon's roar Great Guynemer rides forth again Does Docs Lufbery sweep some heavenly glen Like Phaeton of ancient day And Vernon Castle meet them then Where flies flics each ace of yesterday esterday John John M. M McGough In the New York Times knew this young Englishman remember remember remember re re- re- re member that so striking was his physical appearance and so buoyant were his spirits it was like a wind from heaven when he entered a room Harriet Monroe Monroe Monroe Mon Mon- roe called him the lyric Apollo and his poet brother-poet William Butler Butler Butler But But- ler Yeats said he was the most beautiful young man in England But the world remembers him as the writer of this exquisite sonnet sonnet sonnet son son- net T THE E SOLDIER U If I should die think only this of me That theres there's some corner of a n foreign field That is forever England There shall be beIn beIn beIn In that rich earth a richer dust concealed concealed con con- A dust which England bore shaped made aware Gave Cave once her flowers to love her ber ways to roam A body of England's breathing English air air Washed by the rivers blest by suns SUDS of home And think this heart all evil shed away A pulse in the eternal mind no less Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given Her sights and sounds dreams happy as asher asher asher her day And laughter learnt of friends and gentleness In hearts at peace under an English haven Out of the horror of the Battle of Ypres came another poem which has made the name of its author famous He was Col John McCrae commander of the medical department of Canadian Canadian Canadian Cana Cana- dian Hospital No 3 a McGill university university university uni uni- unit Innumerable times during the 16 days of that battle McCrae watched the burial of the dead and saw the white crosses erected over their graves Then in the spring he saw the poppies trying to cover the tortured earth with their scarlet glory and he wrote IN FLANDERS FIELDS In Flanders fields the poppies grow Between the crosses row on row That mark our place While in the sky The larks still bravely singing fly Unheard amid the guns below We arc are the dead Short da days s 's ago ngo We lived felt dawn saw sunsets glow Loved and were loved loved but but now we lie In Flanders fields I Take up our quarrel with the foci To you from falling hands bands we throw The torch torch torch-Be Be yours to bear It high If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep though poppies blow In Flanders fields McCrae's poem was translated ed into every language spoken by bythe bythe bythe the Allied forces It became a symbol of the determination to carry carryon on and before its authors author's authors author's authors author's au au- au- au thors thor's death in January 1918 this Canadian soldiers soldier's neighbors the Americans as well as thousands of his fellow-Canadians fellow and other citizens of the British empire had heeded his injunction to take up our fight McCrae was stricken with pneumonia at his post of duty and died in a hospital in Boulogne He was buried in the cemetery at Wimereux on a sunny slope facing f cing the sunset and the sea where red poppies grow among the white crosses one of which marks the last resting place of John McCrae The second American soldier- soldier poet who died in France and whose name is best remembered because of one poem was Joyce Kilmer It is a curious fact however however however how how- ever that it was written before he became a soldier and it was not a war poem A graduate from Columbia university in 1908 Kilmer held various journalistic jobs lobs before joining the staff of the New York Times in 1913 In that year Harriet Monroes Monroe's Poetry Poetry Poetry Poet Poet- ry A Magazine of Verse printed the poem which was to make Kilmer Kilmer Kilmer Kil Kil- mer famous It was TREES I think that I r shall never see sec secA seeA seeA A poem lovely love as a tree A tree whose hungry mouth Is pressed Against the earths earth's sweet flowing breast A tree that looks at God all day And lifts her leafy arms to pray A tree that may in summer wear wearA A nest of robins In her hair Upon whose bosom snow has lain Who Intimately lives with rain Poems are made by fools like me But only God Cod can make a tree Kilmer was paid 7 for this poem poem poem-a a few years ago the manuscript manuscript manuscript manu manu- script of it was sold for At Atthe Atthe Atthe the outbreak of the World war Kilmer was more sympathetic to the German side than that of the Allies because the former was more unpopular in this country But he quickly changed after the sinking of the Lusitania and he wrote a poem about this event which was widely reprinted in both America and Europe Called The White Ships and the Red it portrayed the arrival of a new ship among the ghostly hulks of the thousands of vessels that lie on the floor of the sea sea only only this ship the Lusitania was not white but red with blood Joining the legion of the lost the Lusitania declares My My wrong cries out for vengeance The blow that sent me here Was aimed in hell My dying scream Has reached Jehovah's ear car Not all the seven oceans Shall wash away that stain Upon a brow that wears a crown I am the brand of Cain Soon after America entered the war Kilmer although married and the father of three children enlisted in a famous New York regiment the regiment the Fighting Sixty- Sixty ninth He became a sergeant and although he had opportunities for promotion he turned them down because they would have in involved involved involved in- in leaving his regiment for training elsewhere Id rather b be a a sergeant in the Sixty-ninth Sixty than a lieutenant in any other regiment in the world he wrote a friend And it was as a sergeant in the Sixty-ninth Sixty that he died died on on July 30 1918 during the five-days' five fighting for the heights near the river He had volunteered his services to the major of the battalion leading the advance because because because be be- cause his own battalion was not in the lead Having discovered a German machine gun nest inthe in inthe inthe the woods ahead he was sent with a patrol to determine its ex ex- exact exact act location Two hours later when the rest of the battalion advanced advanced advanced ad ad- into the woods they found Kilmer lying bent over a ridge as if still scouting When they turned him over they found that he was dead He was buried near the spot where he fell beside his lieutenant who was wa's also killed |