Verses

Chapter 23: A BIVOUAC

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About This Book

A varied collection of short poems mixing lyric meditation, satire, and balladry. The pieces range from war-tinged reflections and political commentary to convivial drinking songs, devotional verses, and playful dedications to friends and children. Many poems evoke rural and urban scenes with brisk, conversational diction, while others adopt formal stanzaic shapes for narrative effects. Themes include memory, faith, social critique, nature, and companionship, with tone shifting between humor and solemnity. The sequence alternates concise epigrams and longer narrative pieces, united by a rhythmic clarity and a direct, energetic voice that balances spontaneity with careful craft.

A BIVOUAC

I

You came without a human sound,

You came and brought my soul to me;

I only woke, and all around

They slumbered on the firelit ground,

Beside the guns in Burgundy.

II

I felt the gesture of your hands,

You signed my forehead with the Cross;

The gesture of your holy hands

Was bounteous—like the misty lands

Along the Hills in Calvados.

III

But when I slept I saw your eyes,

Hungry as death, and very far.

I saw demand in your dim eyes

Mysterious as the moons that rise

At midnight, in the Pines of Var.