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Sunday, November 11, 2012

Anthem for Doomed Youth - by Wilfred Owen

Symmetry, Wilfred Owen memorial - geograph.org...
Symmetry, Wilfred Owen memorial - geograph.org.uk - 1071597 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
English: Portrait of Wilfred Owen, found in a ...
English: Portrait of Wilfred Owen, found in a collection of his poems from 1920. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Anthem For Doomed Youth

 by Wilfred Owen

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells,
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, -
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing down of blinds.


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