Show elli I 1 rv W r 1 r w ff ag V 1 I ORZ t ea va ali 1 44 1 af 4 41 4 va Z Y th 4 alt by ELMO SCOTT WATSON released by western newspaper union N A world aflame with war the thoughts of americans on I 1 IN armistice day 1940 inevitably turn to that november day 22 years ago when world war I 1 ended in arlington national cemetery near washington stands the symbol of our participation in that conflict the tomb of the unknown soldier one of our greatest 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 monument to the who gave their lives in that earlier fight against the threat of dictatorial power among them were a few who I 1 unknowingly ere erected C ted memorials to themselves which seem destined to be as enduring as the white marble of the tomb in arlington for they were the soldier poets who before a bullet or shell fragment agent fr wrote finis to their careers composed some bit of deathless verse which is now and always will be associated with their names in 1936 when frederic 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 americans all of these 59 are known to a few poetry lovers perhaps half of them are familiar names to students of literature but to the english speaking world generally four of their names have become as familiar as the names of famous bards who sang in earlier and more peaceful times they are two americans alan seeger and joyce kilmer an englishman rupert brooke and a canadian john mccrae although each of the four wrote considerable verse in each case there is one poem which is in inevitably evit ably and invariably associated with the name of its author anthor to think of alan seeger is to think of 1 I have alave a rendezvous with death which was prophetic of the fate of the poet if not of the late fate of the poem seeger was a young harvard graduate who was studying in paris at the outbreak 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 I 1 have a rendezvous with death at some come disputed barricade when spring comes round with rustling shade and apple blossoms fill the air I 1 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 in may ay be I 1 shall pass him still I 1 have a rendezvous with death on some scarred slope of battered hill bul when spring comes round again this year and the first meadow flowers appear god cod knows better to be deep pillowed billowed Pill owed in silk and scented down where love throbs out in blissful sleep pulse nigh to pulse and breath to breath where hushed awakenings awaken ings are dear but ive a rendezvous with death at midnight in some flaming town when spring trips north again this year and I 1 to my pledged word and true I 1 shall not cot tau fall 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 bad died for france seeger worked feverishly to finish the poem in time memorial day came but it brought no word to seeger that his application for leave of absence to go to paris for the ceremony 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 day for he had a rendezvous with death which he could not fail to keep on july 4 1918 1916 there was a burst of german machine gun un fire at belloy en and one of the men who went down in the hail of death was the young soldier poet there is a touch of pathos in 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 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 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 1 I wonder in what star tar flowered nook young alan seeger sings sines his bis song sone in what elysium rupert brooke breathes forth his music all day ion long for from from a world that lights with wrong does byron dream of fr freedoms sway and keats and shelley join the throng where sings each bard of yesterday say where does brave soar above the haunts ol of earthly men or where beyond che cannons roar great guynemer rides forth again does lufbery sweep some heavenly glen like phaeton of 0 ancient day and vernon castle meet them then where the flies s each ace ol of yesterday john al mcgough in the new york times knew this young englishman remember 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 called him the lyric apollo and his brother poet william butler yeats said he was the most beautiful young man in england but the world remembers him as the writer of this exquisite sonnet THE SOLDIER U I 1 should die think only this ol of me that theres some corn corner er ol of a foreign field that la is forever england there shall be in that rich earth a richer dust concealed A dust which england bore shaped made aware gave once her lowers flowers to love her w ways ays to roam A bod body y ot of england En glands breathing english air ir wasted washed by the rivers blest by suns SUDI of home and think this heart all evil shed away A pulse in the eternal mind no less gives somewhere back the thoughts thought by england given her sights and sounds dreams happy as a 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 cypres came another poem which has made the name of its author famous he was col john mccrae commander of the medical department of canadian dian hospital no 3 a mcgill university 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 graves then in the spring he saw the poppies trying to cover the tortured earth with their scarlet glory and he wrote LV IN FLANDERS FIELDS in flanders fields the poppies grow between the crosses row on row TI that 1 at mark our place while in the a sky ky th the e larks still bravely singing fly ly unheard amid the guns below we ore arc the dead short days ago we lived felt elt dawn saw sunsets glow blow loved and were loved but now we lie U in flanders fields I 1 take up our quarrel with the loci foel T to y you 0 u fr from 0 m falling hands w we ahr throw ow toe the t torch 0 ach be yours to bear it highl g if ye break faith with us nho die we sha mihall I 1 not sleep though poppies blow la in flanders fields adds McC raes poem was translated into every language spoken by the allied forces it became a symbol of the determination to carry on and before its authors death in january 1918 this canadian soldiers neighbors the americans as wen well as thousands of his fellow canadians 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 the sunset and the sea where red poppies grow among the white crosses one of which marks the last resting p place lace of john mccrae the second american 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 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 before joining the staff of the new york times in 1913 in that year harriet monroes monroen Mon roes poetry A magazine of verse printed the poem which was to make kilmer famous it was TREES I 1 think that I 1 shall never see A poem lovely as a tree A tree whose hungry mouth Is pressed against the earths sweet sowing breast A tree that looks at god all day and lifts ilits her leafy arms to pray A tree that may in summer wear A nest ol of robins in her baar 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 tor for this poem a few years ago the manuscript of it was sold for at 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 only this ship the lusitania was not white but red with blood joining the legion of the lost the lusitania declares my wrong cries out for vengeance the blow that sent me here was aimed in hell bell my dying scream has reached Jehova hs car not all the seven oceans shall wash away that stain upon a brow that wears a crown I 1 am the brand of cain soon after america entered the war kilmer although married I 1 and the father of three children I 1 enlisted in a famous new york regiment the fighting sixty ninth he became a sergeant and although althou gli he had opportunities for promotion he turned them down because they would have involved leaving his regiment for training elsewhere id rather be a sergeant in the sixty ninth than a lieutenant in any other regiment in the world he wrote a friend and it was as a sergeant in the sixty ninth that he died on jul july 30 1918 during the five days fighting for the heights near the river he had volunteered his services to the major of the battalion leading the advance because his own battalion battalio f was not in the lead having discovered a german machine gun nest in the woods ahead he was sent with a patrol to determine its ex act location two hours later when the rest of the battalion advanced into the woods they found kilmer lying bent over a ridge as it 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 hia lieutenant who was also killed |