I have liked this poem for some time now. I ran across it again today, and decided to post it here on Daily Kos. I think it is something that we should all read and think about- and beyond us, the soldiers, leaders, and people involved in this war and occupation in Iraq. This poem is over 100 years old, but it could have been written about the Iraq war yesterday. I think that our leaders need to think about what they are asking their soldiers to do, and why....the poem is William Vaughan Moody's "On a soldier fallen in the Phillippines."
STREETS of the roaring town,
Hush for him; hush, be still!
He comes, who was stricken down
Doing the word of our will.
Hush! Let him have his state. 5
Give him his soldier's crown,
The grists of trade can wait
Their grinding at the mill.
But he cannot wait for his honor, now the trumpet has been blown.
Wreathe pride now for his granite brow, lay love on his breast of stone. 10
Toll! Let the great bells toll
Till the clashing air is dim,
Did we wrong this parted soul?
We will make it up to him.
Toll! Let him never guess 15
What work we sent him to.
Laurel, laurel, yes.
He did what we bade him do.
Praise, and never a whispered hint but the fight he fought was good;
Never a word that the blood on his sword was his country's own heart's-blood. 20
A flag for a soldier's bier
Who dies that his land may live;
O banners, banners here,
That he doubt not nor misgive!
That he heed not from the tomb 25
The evil days draw near
When the nation robed in gloom
With its faithless past shall strive.
Let him never dream that his bullet's scream went wide of its island mark,
Home to the heart of his darling land where she stumbled and sinned in the dark. 30
How many of us have felt this way when we saw on the local news a funeral of a soldier killed in action in Iraq? And how effectively does this sum up what George Bush and the leaders of this country want us to do? To muzzle our anger, grief, and outrage at the war and the suffering in the name of "respect for the dead?" If we really want to respect the soldiers who died in Iraq, we will do our damndest to stop them dying.