Not of the princes and prelates with periwigged charioteers Riding triumphantly laurelled to lap the fat of the years, -- Rather the scorned -- the rejected -- the men hemmed in with the spears; The men of the tattered battalion which fights till it dies, Dazed with the dust of the battle, the din and the cries. The men with the broken heads and the blood running into their eyes. Not the be-medalled Commander, beloved of the throne, Riding cock-horse to parade when the bugles are blown, But the lads who carried the koppie and cannot be known. Not the ruler for me, but the ranker, the tramp of the "road, The slave with the sack on his shoulders pricked on with the goad, The man with too weighty a burden, too weary a load. The sailor, the stoker of steamers, the man with the clout, The chantyman bent at the halliards putting a tune to the shout, The drowsy man at the wheel and the tired look-out. Others may sing of the wine and the wealth and the mirth, The portly presence of potentates goodly in girth; -- Mine be the dirt and the dross, the dust and scum of the earth! Theirs be the music, the colour, the glory, the gold; Mine be a handful of ashes, a mouthful of mould. Of the maimed, of the halt and the blind in the rain and the cold -- Of these shall my songs be fashioned, my tales be told. AMEN. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CENTENNIAL HYMN by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER MY FORE-ELDERS by WILLIAM BARNES ON A JUNIPER-TREE, CUT DOWN TO MAKE BUSKS by APHRA BEHN INTERNAL FIRESIDES by MATHILDE BLIND FORTUNE; BALADES DE VISAGE SANZ PEINTURE by GEOFFREY CHAUCER THE LITTLE DEVIL by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES THE ANNUNCIATION AND PASSION by JOHN DONNE THE MINISTRY OF NATURE; OR, THE TEMPLE SERVICE OF THE SEASONS by WILLIAM STEWARD GORDON |