BRIGHTLY for him the future smiled, The world was all untried; He had been a boy, almost a child, In your household till he died. And you saw him young and strong and fair But yesterday depart; And you now know he is lying there Shot to death through the heart! Alas, for the step so proud and true That struck on the war-path's track; Alas, to go, as he went from you, And to come, as they brought him back! One shining curl from that bright young head, Held sacred in your home, Is all that you have to keep in his stead In the years that are to come. You may claim of his beauty and his youth Only this little part-- It is not much with which to stanch The wound in a mother's heart! It is not much with which to dry The bitter tears that flow; Not much in your empty hands to lie As the seasons come and go. Yet he has not lived and died in vain, For proudly you may say He has left a name without a stain For your tears to wash away. And evermore shall your life be blest, Though your treasures now are few, Since you gave for your country's good the best God ever gave to you! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...READING WHITMAN IN A TOILET STALL by TIMOTHY LIU THE SHADOWY WATERS: A DRAMATIC POEM by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS TO THE POOR by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD 1914: 3. THE DEAD by RUPERT BROOKE SHERMAN by RICHARD WATSON GILDER MEMORY by WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR AN EPITAPH ON A ROBIN REDBEAST by SAMUEL ROGERS |