The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1918-02-10
War Brings Little
Worthwhile Poetry
Many Are Inspired by Worlds Conflict but Few Can Por-
tray Their Thoughts in Verse That VIII Continue Long
After the Restoration of Peace

to the huge store OF war verse in every
newspaper and magazine. How much
of it will survive the war. time alone
can tell. bus II is true that great
poems are as scarce In the whole as
great novels are scarce in the libra
res of writings which the war has
produced.
Perhaps the finest poetry of the
great war has not yet been written.
Perhaps it has escaped notice in the
Hood OF verse. Several pieces of really
splendid Verse. worthy OF the ire
mendous subject and certain 10 live
after the war, stand out however,
above the general level.
Because the glamor of heroism clinss
TO Alan Seeger. the young American
| poet who died in service overseas, II
/ Have Rendezvous With Death"
would not be forgotten. by this gen.
| GRAFTON, at least, even ii 1t were not
imbued with the fine chivalry which
sent hundreds of Americans into the
allied armies before the United States
| became a belligerent. Seeger's best
/ poem is probably better known than
any other which the war has produced,
| and 1t is stirring enough to survive
the sentimental interest in the poet. II
follows
! ! Have Rendezvous With Death.
have a rendezvous with Death
AT some disputed barricade.
When Spring comes back with rustling
shade
And apple blossoms fill the air
l have a rendezvous with Death
When Spring brings back blue days
and fair
1t may be he shall take my hand
And lead me into his dark land
And close my eyes and qnsnch my
breath
II may be shall pass him. still
have rendezvous with Death
ON some SCARED slope Of battered hill,
When Spring comes round again this
And the first meadow flowers appear.
God knows 'twere better 10 be deep
Pillowed in silk and scented down.
Where Love throbs out in bnssfu,
sleep
Pulse nigh to pulse. and breath to
breath,
Where hushed awakenings are dear
But I've n rendezvous with Death
At midnight in some flaming town,
When Spring trips north again this
year.
And to my pledged word am true,
l shall not fail that rendezvous.
Linked with Alan Seeger's name In
that Of Rupert Brooke, a young Eng
| l!shH.an, who died ON the .ragica!!y
mistaken enterprise of Great Britain
at the Dardanelles Brooke's attitude,
not unlike Seeger's in it's quality, IL
best expressed in this poem:
The Soldier.
II l should die think only this OF me
That there's some corner OF foreign
field
That is forever England. There shall
In that rich earth a richer dust con-
cealed:
dust whom England bore, shaped.
made aware.
Gave once her flowers to love, her
ways to roam.
body of England's, breathing Eng
lands air,
Washed by the rivers. blest by suns
of home
And think this heart. all evil shed
away,
pulse in the eternal mind. no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts
by England given:
Her signs and sounds; dreams happy
as her day;
And laughter. learnt of friends; and
2entleness,
In hearts at peace, under an Eng
gliSh heaven. \
Brave. stalwart poems, these--the
| outpourings OF Young hearts gone to
battle for ideals sake. But finer than
either Of them is a poem which i'm
mortalizes the spirit of the SeeSers
and Erookes OF the war: Winifred NJ
Let's THE Spires OF Oxford II any
lines can be called the wars finest In
this poor perspective. these are the
lines: r. .-.......
The Spires Of Oxford.
saw the spires OF Oxford
40 was passing Dy.
The gray spires OF Oxford
Against the pearl-gray sky.
My heart was with the Oxford men
Who went abroad to die
The years 90 fast in Oxford.
The golden years and gay.
The hoary Colleges look down
On careless boys at play
But when the bugles sounded war
| They put their games away.
They left the peaceful river,
The cricket field. the quad,
| The shaver lawns OF Oxford,
To seek bloody sod
| They gave their merry youth away
| For country and for God
| God rest you. happy gentlemen,
Who laid your good lives down.
! Who took the khaki and the gun
Instead Of cap and gewn.