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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


AFTER ACTION (A SOUL REMEMBERS) by ROBERT HAVEN SCHAUFFLER

First Line: ONCE, IN MY MOMENT OF EARTH
Last Line: IN REARING A HEAVENLY FLOWER.
Subject(s): SOLDIERS' WRITINGS; WORLD WAR I; FIRST WORLD WAR;

ONCE, in my moment of earth,
Before the immortal re-birth,
I thought of my flesh as a thing
Like to the house of a king,—
Beautiful, worthy to stand
Proud on the heavenly strand.

I remember it now as a clod
Prone in the gardens of God,—
Mean, without honor or beauty,
Justified but by the duty
Of spending its pittance of power
In rearing a heavenly flower.



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