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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


RIDDLES, R.F.C. by JOHN DRINKWATER

Poet Analysis

First Line: HE WAS A BOY OF APRIL BEAUTY; ONE
Last Line: ATTEMPT TO SAVE A COMRADE. HE WAS TWENTY YEARS OF AGE.
Subject(s): AVIATION & AVIATORS; RIDLEY, LT. STEWART G. (1896-1916); SACRIFICES; WORLD WAR I - CASUALTIES; AIRPLANES; AIR PILOTS;

HE was a boy of April beauty; one
Who had not tried the world; who, while the sun
Flamed yet upon the eastern sky, was done.

Time would have brought him in her patient ways --
So his young beauty spoke -- to prosperous days,
To fulness of authority and praise.

He would not wait so long. A boy, he spent
His boy's dear life for England. Be content:
No honour of age had been more excellent.

Note. Lieutenant S.G. Ridley, Royal Flying Corps, sacrificed his life in the Egyptian desert in an
attempt to save a comrade. He was twenty years of age.



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