The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1900-08-19
THE HORROR OF WAR POETRY


least some verse In lofty strain should
have come from 80 gifted land as Great
Britain. The civil war In the Tinted states
reduced John Browns Body" but IL was
the inspiration aisp Of these noble lines:
Mine eyes have seen tho glory OF the coming
OF the Lcrd.
grapes OF wrath arc stored.
He hath loosed the fateiul lightning Of His
terrible swift sword,
HIS truth Is marching On.
II tho rioters In the French revolution
danced to the doggcrel Of the "Carmagnole''
thtv were reused to action. too by the LOFTY
ewng Of tho Marseillaise:
We sons OF France, awake TO gloryl
Hsrkl Harkl What myrads bid you rise!
The American revolution failed to produce
any poetry Of abiding worth, Yankee Doo-
die" is survival OF that time. but 1t Wis
the catchy tune. as PLAYED by drum and
nfe that preserved the name for future gem
erations and. not the words. Who would
even know that this rhyme belongs to the
famous songy
Father and vent down TO camp
Along with captain Goodwin
Aud there we saw the men and boys
AS thick as hasty pudding.
~
ono OF the triumphs OF the war Of 1919
war with Mexico Whittier wrote THE An
gels OF Buena VISTA" and the civil war IN
spired many notable additions to the poetry
OF tho battlefield
England has THE Charge OF the Light
Brigade to recall the struggle In the Cri-
mea aud with such poets as Kiplng SWIM
burne and Watson there was reason to ex-
u, ct some stirring verse as the result OF the
South African conflict only few years
before the youthful Kiplng had written his
Hymn Before Acton:"
The enrth is full OF anger.
Tho seas are dark with wrAth'
The nations in their harness
Go up against our pa,hl
Ere yet we loose the logions-
Ere vet we draw the blade
Jehovah OF the founders.
Lord God of Battles adj
His frat lines on the Transvaal situation
were awaited with intense interest They
arc well remembered. Som body has aply
called them rag time verse. Their chorus
ran;
Dukes son cooks son. son of hundred
FIFTY thousand horse and foot going TO
Table Bay,
Each OF EN- doing his country's work
/ Aud who's 10 look after their thingsf
Pass tho hat for your credits sake and pay.
pay pay.
But this wns only the beginning OF MT
IKiplirg's offensos. IIe wrote more verso
on the same theme. Now, war is good'
strong Saxon word and is exceedingly effect
I've al tho end of line but unfortunately
Il has few close rhymes. The author o.
'Recossionnl" could not pass Il by; how
ever. So he wrote In the London Morning
post;
What SEQ ye7 Their signals or levin afart
what hear vo? Gods thundor--or guns OF
our wary
! Tho ordinary reader. for whom Mr.. Kip
ling doubtless wrote ha he printed the verse
In n ncwsnapcr may he inter ested IN know.
ing that levin" onco upon time meant
lightning. In tho same noom u" author
rhvmed war" with 'mnr,"
\ ~
After this fall of Bioemfontein the corS
RESPONDENTS wired this from thor brilliant
contradict
We welcome to our neart. tonight
Our hnsman from afar
Brothers in an empires nght
And comrades OF our war
fragment OF she'll mt Kimberley mat
WINS turned into an inkatand furn shed an-
other opportunity to link war" with "nfar'
put that was only three tines. In the Lon
hut this was only three times. in the Lon
wrote;
An tho world over nursing their scars.
SIT the poor fighting men broke ID our wars
But war" is II stlrrlng word. even though
II ms 30 few good rhymes, and 10 the same
poem en- he used Il again in this iashioni
Yo that tread triumpbing. crowned toward the
PITY Door lighting men broke In our wars,
n yes 10 be expected that Mr. Alfred Aus
lin, poet laureate, should burst forth into
singing Ills strain was awaited with some
suspense by those who remembered the oae
on "JUmesous Ride
wrong9 Is It wrongH Well. maybe,
But I'm going, boys. all the same.
DO they think me a burghers baby.
To be scared by scoldinB nansG
Tho poet laureate, however, had recoiied
from the everyday and commonplace In gerSe
lie apparently aimed to produce something
elasalcai--linos that would appeal 10 the most
cultured instinct Of tho British Tommy At
kins who. rs everybody knows IS nothing u
not erudite. So his verse reeountea Rome
after which LEGION on legion sprane UP from
the gropnd--gleamed through the land--then
over ocean wound. till snipio's eagles swarmed
, on Africa's shore and Carthage persisted, Il
insult no more" Later Mr.. Austin came
, forward with sweeping assertion IN
Spartan Mothers" that who fights for
England fights for God"
Mr. william Watson, who is just now tn,
) william Lloyd Garrison OF British verse. was
heard on the other side, and Mr.. Austin re-
, turned demorallzed to the attack In won
derful hodge.podge, in which he outdid Mr
! Kipling by rhyming In a single stanza Lady
, smith" With ''kith" and with and tine
lee" with "Delhi" Algernoa Charles Swim
r hurne, the master OF melody and rhythm has
I also nung himself into the competition. with
We loosen not these knayes
{ Our scourge tormented slaves;
We held the hand that fam
Had risen To smite
: The torturer fast.
/ Whose hand had risenY who is the tor
G turer? And why should we hold the han,
/ that fain would smite2 Why not let II smite
$ Would il not be better 20 pay more atten
: tion to the feet Ia the first line and less L
! the hand In the third2 And yet this yers'
I appears In companion TO the great journa
that only three years ago printed the solemn
words:
,. Lord God OF Hosts. be with US yet.
Lest We forget-lest we forget
There Is reason TO fear that this prayer
% has been in vain In the case OF the poets IL
, comparing their earlier poems with the re
"