Show ta ft 5 egv W k M x y Y R A ky ak IX 4 xa U I 1 n w pak 4 z p 0 i X by ELMO SCOTT WATSON ne released leased by western newspaper paper union T N A world aflame with war the thoughts of americans on 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 conkli ct 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 unknowingly erected 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 br shell 1 fragment wrote finis to P their careers composed some bit of deathless verse which is now and always will be associated with their names in 1936 1986 when frederic W compiled an anthology of poems by poets who were killed in 1914 to 1018 1918 his book the valiant muse contained the work of 59 young englishmen and americans all AH of these 69 59 are known to toa 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 n englishman rupert brooke brooka and V a canadian john mccrae although each of the four wrote considerable verse in each case there is one poem which is inevitably evit ably and invariably associated with the name of its author to think seeger is to think of 1 I have a rendezvous with death which was prophet ic ozithe fate of the poet if not of the 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 sgeng spring comes round with rustling shade sh a k and apple blossoms nil ful the air f I 1 have a rendezvous with death when spring brings back blue days and lair fair it may be he shall ahau take my hand and lead me into his dark land and close my eyes and quench my breath b re ath 1 it ma may y be I 1 shau shall pass him still I 1 have a rendezvous with death on tome some scarred slope of battered hill when spring comes round again this year and the first meadow flowers bowers appear god 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 alse ulse and breath to breath where hus bushed hes awakenings awaken ings are de dear at B but u t ive a rendezvous with death at midnight in some flaming town when spring trips north again this year and I 1 to my pledged pledged word and true I 1 shall hall not fa tall 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 e volunteers who had 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 beeri been granted later it was learned that a careless clerk had confused cont used 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 knot falato keep on july 4 1916 there was a burst of german MiI machine chine gun 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 K 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 brook e wrote a poem that was prop prophetic heti c of his death and that contributed most to his fame those who BALLAD OF BARDS AND ACES I 1 wonder in what star flowered nook young alan setter seeger sings lings his all I 1 la what elysium rupert brooke brook e breathes Brea forth his hi music al all I 1 day 10 long ag for from a world that fights with wrong does byron dream ol of freedoms rree dom sway away A and keats and shelley join the throng where sings each bard 0 of yesterday say where does brave so soar ar above the haunts ol of earthly men in en 0 or r where beyond the cann cannons onlo roar great guynemer rides forth again does lufbery sweep some heavenly glen like phaeton ol of ancient day and vernon castle meet them then where hies files each ace of 0 yesterday john M mcgough la in the new york times 1 knew Ws young englishman remember mem berthat that so striking was his physical appearance and so buoyant were his spirits it was uke 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 TUB THE SOLDIER if I 1 should die think only this of me that theres some corner of a foreign field that 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 flowers to love her ways to roam A body of En england glands breathing english air washed by the rivers blest by suns guns of home and think this heart au all evil shed away A pulse in the eternal mind no less gives somewhere back the thoughts by y england given her sights bi and sounds dreams happy as ai her day and laughter learnt of ct friends and gentleness in hearts at peace un under der 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 ile he was col john mccrae commander of the medical department of canadian hospital no 3 a mcgill university unit innumerable times jimes during the 16 dayson days of that battle mccrae watched the burial of the dead and saw the white crosses erected over their graves then in the spring nghe he saw the poppies trying to cover the tortured earth with their scarlet glory ard and he wrote IN FLANDERS in flanders fields the poppies grow between the crosses tow row on row that mark our place while to in the the sky the larks stul still bravely singing fly I 1 unheard amid the guns below we are the dead short days ago we lived felt dawn saw sunsets glow loved and were loved but now we UP lie in flanders fields I 1 take up our quarrel with the foel to you from falling hands we throw the torch torchie be yours to bear it highl it 11 ye break faith with us who adlei die W we shall not sleep though poppies blow in ln flanders fields 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 thi this canadian soldiers neighbors the americans as well as thousands of his fellow canadians and other citizens of the british empire had heeded his injunction to take ke 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 place of john mccrae the second american soldier poet who died in france and whose name is best remembered because of one poem was J royce 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 1808 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 flowing breast A tree that looks at god all day and lifts her leafy arms to pray A tree that may in summer wear ear A nest of robins in her haira hair upon whose bosom snow has lain who intimately lives with rain P poems ems are made by fools like me but only god can make a tree kilmer was paid 7 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 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 1 the lusitania was not white but red with blood joining the legion of the lost the lusitania declares my wrong cries out tor for vengeance the blow that sent me here was aimed la in hell my dying scream has reached Jehova hs ear not all the seven oceans shall wash away that stain upon a brow that wears a crown I 1 ana am the brand ol of cain soon after america entered the war kilmer although married 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 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 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 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 exact location two hours later when the rest of the battalion advanced into the woods they found kilmer lying bent over a ridge as if still scouting when them they turned him over they found that lie he was dead he was buried near where he fell beside his lieutenant who was also killed 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