Prose & Poetry - The Muse in Arms - Gifts of the Dead
First published in London
in November 1917 and reprinted in February 1918 The Muse in Arms
comprised, in the words of editor E. B. Osborne:
"A collection of war poems, for the most part written in the field of action, by seamen, soldiers, and flying men who are serving, or have served, in the Great War".
Below is one of eleven poems featured within The Future Hope section of the collection. You can access other poems within the section via the sidebar to the right.
Gifts of the Dead
by
Rupert Brooke
Blow out, you bugles, over
the rich dead!
There's none of these so lonely and poor of old,
But, dying, has made us rarer gifts than gold.
These laid the world away; poured out the red
Sweet wine of youth; gave up the years to be
Of work and joy, and that unhoped serene,
That men call age; and those who would have been,
Their sons, they gave, their immortality.
Blow, bugles, blow! They
brought us, for our dearth
Holiness, lacked so long, and Love, and Pain.
Honour has come back, as a king, to earth,
And paid his subjects with a royal wage;
And Nobleness walks in our ways again;
And we have come into our heritage.
"ANZAC" was coined in 1915 from the initials of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.
- Did you know?
