“The Soldiers” by Sherard Vines

"The Soldiers" 

At first with fruit and flowers and drink

They went, libated; festal day

When demigods in columns swing

Amid the maniac mob.      I saw

Massed women singing at the quay

Songs of their land, ere the high ship

Crept hooting out to sea. And then

How one would crowd to watch a squad

Catching the snap and unity

Of drill, at practice days afield

Invading hidden villages

In laps of downs.      They, still unwhipped,

Plod on obediently to death

Without the cheering and the praise

 

[ . . . ]

 

Sherard Vines' poem "The Soldiers" was published in 1917 in the second "cycle" or issue of Wheels. To read this poem in full in a digitized version of this publication, follow the link(s) below:

Archive.org

Librivox audio recording hosted on Archive.org

The Modernist Journals Project

Hysteric meed of yesterday ;