The Project Gutenberg eBook of Great Poems of the World War

This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.

Title: Great Poems of the World War

Author: William Dunseath Eaton

Release date: April 10, 2018 [eBook #56956]
Most recently updated: January 24, 2021

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Brian Coe, Chuck Greif and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GREAT POEMS OF THE WORLD WAR ***

GREAT POEMS OF THE WORLD WAR

Contents
Index of First Lines

BETWEEN the hedges of the centuries
A thousand phantom armies go and come,
While Reason whispers as each marches past,
“This is the last of wars—this is the last!”
—Lieut. Gilbert Waterhouse.

GREAT POEMS OF
THE WORLD WAR

Edited, With Introduction, Notes and
Original Matter, By
W. D. EATON

CHICAGO
T. S. DENISON & COMPANY
PUBLISHERS

“Great Poems of the World War”

PREFACE

N a fateful day in 1914, without a warning flash or tremor, there fell upon the world such a blast of war as human reason could not have foreglimpsed, nor Apocalyptic vision raised, to appall the souls of men. Twenty-seven nations took the shock and were rocked to their foundations. Eleven were caught and knotted in the maddest agony of conflict that ever was known. Through four years the winds of destruction swirled and roared around the monstrous welter, before the evil forces failed and their exhaustion brought a breathing space such as lies at the heart of a typhoon. Around the widening edges of that space they still muttered for a while in gusts of blood and fire, slowly receding, slowly dying. But the great storm is gone; the long night that seemed the night of doom is over.

Its epic has not been written. The time is too near us, the motive too deep, the theme too vast. But out of the dark came many voices, voices of lamentation, of home and love and hope and heroism and loftiest ideality, of romance, of strange comedy. These had their inspiration from a gigantic spectacle of elemental passions in cross-play, from the thoughts and emotions not of a single people, but of all that were fighting for the life and light of civilization. Poets great and poets minor followed the war or fought in it, and expressed its spirit with a personal, passionate fidelity impossible to historians.

It would not be well were all these voices lost. Many are worth fixation where they may be heard again at will, and that is the reason for and purpose of this book. The finest and truest of them are given here.

In making selection, availability for recitation has been considered. There is no better way to stir the mind or fix the memory than by spoken words of beauty in rhythmic cadence, especially in schools. It is hoped they will be effective in such uses.

Readers will find in the captain notes many helpful sidelights upon topics and personalities. These will commend themselves for their own sake.

W. D. Eaton.

The Press Club, Chicago.

Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight	Vachel Lindsay	144
Aceldama	Dr. George F. Butler	117
Afterward	Charles Hanson Towne	133
Alan Seeger	Washington Van Dusen	14
Ambulance Driver’s Prayer, An	Chaplain Thomas F. Coakley	74
American Creed, An	Everard Jack Appleton	57
Anxious Anthemist, The	Guy Forrester Lee	169
Anxious Dead, The	Lieut. Col. John McCrae	109
April Song, An	George C. Michael	189
Armed Liner, The	H. Smalley Sarson	183
“As She Is Spoke”		113
As the Trucks Go Rollin’ By	Lieut. L. W. Suckert	26
Australia’s Men	Dorothea Mackellar	96

Battle Line, The	J. B. Dollard	65
Battle of Belleau Wood	Edgar A. Guest	29
Before Action	Lieut. William Noel Hodgson	13
Blighty	Lieut. Siegfried Sassoon, M. C.	121
Blue and the Gray in France	George M. Mayo	41
Boy Next Door, The	S. E. Kiser	172
British Army of 1914, The	Alfred W. Pollard	119
Bullington	C. Fox Smith	34
But a Short Time to Live	Sergt. Leslie Coulson	103

Call, The	Robert W. Service	106
Christ in Flanders	L. W.	55
Clerk, The	B. H. M. Hetherington	94
Columbia’s Prayer	Thomas P. Bashaw	82
Corp’ral’s Chevrons		37
Cross and the Flag, The	William Henry, Cardinal O’Connell	45
Crown, The	Helen Combes	193
Crutches’ Tune, The	Elizabeth R. Stoner	108

Destroyers	“Klaxon”	84
Dirge, A	Victor Perowne	90
Do Your All	Edgar A. Guest	152
Drum, The	Joseph Lee	67

Easter-Eggs	Reginald Wright Kauffman	89
Edith Cavell	McLandburgh Wilson	178
Epitaph for the Unknown Soldier	Annette Kohn	202
Evening Star, The	Harold Seton	81

Flag Everlasting	A. G. Riddoch	40
Flag of the Free	Francis T. Smith	153
Flag Speaks, The	Walter E. Peck	105
Flag, The	Edward A. Horton	173
Flemish Village, A	H. A.	92
France	Capt. Joseph Medill Patterson	93
French in the Trenches	William J. Robinson	19

Gentlemen of Oxford, The	Norah M. Holland	115
Going West	Eleanor Jewett	123
Goldenrod, The	“Anchusa”	129
Gold Star, The	Edgar A. Guest	17
Graves of Gallipoli, The	L. L. (A. N. Z. A. C.)	27
Great Adventure, The	Major Kendall Banning	68

“Hearts Are Touching”	159
Here at Verdun	Chester M. Wright	167
Homecoming, The	Leroy Folge	192
Hymn of Freedom, A	Mary Perry King	98

I Have a Rendezvous with Death	Alan Seeger	99
In Flanders’ Fields	Lieut. Col. John McCrae	101
In the Front-Line Desks	Lieut. Elmer Franklin Powell	143

Jean Desprez	Robert W. Service	146
John Doe—Buck Private	Allan P. Thomson	127
Just Thinking	Hudson Hawley	80

Kid Has Gone to the Colors	William Herschell	23
Kings, The	Hugh J. Hughes	145
Let There Be Light!	Ruth Wright Kauffman	196
Litany	Allene Gregory	20
Little Grimy-Fingered Girl, A	Lee Wilson Dodd	43
Little Home Paper, The	Charles Hanson Towne	15
Little Town in Senegal, A	Will Thompson	42
Lonely Garden, The	Edgar A. Guest	118
Lost Ones, The	Francis Ledwidge	104

Magpies in Picardy	“Tipcuca”	130
Man Behind, The	Douglas Malloch	166
Marines, The	Adolphe E. Smylie	73
Men of the Blood and Mire	Daniel M. Henderson	160
Mike Dillon, Doughboy	Lieut. John Pierre Roche	61
Morituri Te Salutant	P. H. B. L.	120
Mules	C. Fox Smith	187

Nazareth	“L.”	47
Nineteen-Seventeen	Susan Hooker Whitman	85
No Man’s Land	Capt. James H. Knight-Adkin	16
Not Too Old to Fight	T. C. Harbaugh	75
Not with Vain Tears	Lieut. Rupert Brooke	102
November Eleventh	Elizabeth Hanly	198
Old Gang on the Corner, The	William Herschell	64
Old Jim	Norman Shannon Hall	199
Old Top Sergeant, The	Berton Braley	38
On His Own	Adolphe E. Smylie	124
Our Soldier Dead	Annette Kohn	195

Padre, The	Capt. C. W. Blackall	36
Passing the Buck	Sergt. Norman E. Nygaard	32
Pershing at the Tomb of Lafayette	Amelia Josephine Burr	52
Pierrot Goes	Charlotte Becker	49
Poilu	Steuart M. Emery	95
“Poor Old Ship!”	C. Fox Smith	30
Poppies	Capt. John Mills Hanson	25
Present Battlefield, The	Wright Field	197

Ragnarok	Arthur Guiterman	21
Rain on Your Old Tin Hat	Lieut. J. H. Wickersham	182
Refugees, The	W. G. S.	162
Retinue, The	Katharine Lee Bates	137
Return, The	Theodore Howard Banks, Jr.	33
Ride in France, A	“O. C. Platoon”	170
Rivers of France, The	H. J. M.	79
Road to France, The	Daniel M. Henderson	46
Runner McGee	Edgar A. Guest	57

Scrap of Paper, A	Herbert Kaufman	24
Service Flag, The	J. E. Evans	158
Service Flag, The	William Herschell	154
Ships that Sail in the Night	Dysart McMullen	126
Silent Army, The	Ian Adanac	86
Small Town Sport, A	Damon Runyon	155
Soldiers of the Soil	Everard Jack Appleton	44
Soldier, The	Lieut. Rupert Brooke	102
Somewhere in France	Le Roy C. Henderson	157
Somewhere in France, 1918	Almon Hensley	132
Song of the Air, The	Gordon Alchin	190
Song of the Dead, The	J. H. M. Abbott	161
Song of the Guns, The	Herbert Kaufman	134
Song of the Winds	Mary Lanier Magruder	163
Spires of Oxford, The	Winifred M. Letts	114
Spring	F. M. H. D.	123
Tanks	O. C. A. Child	97
Telling the Bees	G. E. R.	136
There Will Be Dreams Again	Mabel Hillyer Eastman	171
They Shall Not Pass	Alison Brown	125
They Shall Return	J. Lewis Milligan	179
Three Hills	Everard Owen	60
To Happier Days	Mabel McElliott	111
To Serve Is to Gain	Charles H. Mackintosh	179
To Somebody	Harold Seton	69
“To the Irish Dead”	Essex Evans	180
To the Writer of “Christ in Flanders”	E. M. V.	69
Trains	Lieut. John Pierre Roche	53
Two Viewpoints	Amelia Josephine Burr	83

Victory!	S. J. Duncan-Clark	191
Vision	Dorothy Paul	181
Vive La France!	Charlotte Holmes Crawford	139

War	Col. William Lightfoot Visscher	70
War Horse, The	Lieut. L. Fleming	174
War Rosary, The	Nellie Hurst	185
Watchin’ Out for Subs	U. A. L.	18
Wayside in France, A	Adolphe E. Smylie	76
We’re Marchin’ with the Country	Frank L. Stanton	151
“What Think Ye?”	W. A. Briscoe	165
When Private Mugrums Parley Voos	Pvt. Charles Divine	186
While Summers Pass	Aline Michaelis	72
Widow, The	Miss C. M. Mitchell	51
With the Same Pride	Theodosia Garrison	116
Woes of a Rookie, The	William L. Colestock	141
Your Lad, and My Lad	Randall Parrish	112

Great Poems of the World War

About This Book

The Project Gutenberg eBook of Great Poems of the World War

GREAT POEMS OF
THE WORLD WAR

PREFACE

CONTENTS