S13E4: "Into Battle" by Julian Grenfell

For the thirteenth season of the Well Read Poem, we will be reading six poems about war. War is, of course, one of the oldest subjects that has inspired the imagination of poets. The first of our great epics has at its center the war of the Greeks against the Trojans and the deadly hatreds it inspires. In times neare to our own, poets have written about war both with enthusiasm and delight, as well as skepticism and horror at its brutalities. The poems we will share this season cover the span of many centuries.

Today's poem is "Into Battle" by Julian Grenfell. Poem begins at timestamp 3:46. 

“Into Battle” 

by Julian Grenfell

The naked earth is warm with Spring,

And with green grass and bursting trees

Leans to the sun's gaze glorying,

And quivers in the sunny breeze;

And life is Colour and Warmth and Light,

And a striving evermore for these;

And he is dead who will not fight,

And who dies fighting has increase.

 

The fighting man shall from the sun

Take warmth, and life from glowing earth;

Speed with the light-foot winds to run

And with the trees to newer birth;

And find, when fighting shall be done,

Great rest, and fulness after dearth.

 

All the bright company of Heaven

Hold him in their bright comradeship,

The Dog star, and the Sisters Seven,

Orion's belt and sworded hip:

 

The woodland trees that stand together,

They stand to him each one a friend;

They gently speak in the windy weather;

They guide to valley and ridges end.

 

The kestrel hovering by day,

And the little owls that call by night,

Bid him be swift and keen as they,

As keen of ear, as swift of sight.

 

The blackbird sings to him: "Brother, brother,

If this be the last song you shall sing,

Sing well, for you may not sing another;

Brother, sing."

 

In dreary doubtful waiting hours,

Before the brazen frenzy starts,

The horses show him nobler powers; —

O patient eyes, courageous hearts!

 

And when the burning moment breaks,

And all things else are out of mind,

And only joy of battle takes

Him by the throat and makes him blind,

Through joy and blindness he shall know,

Not caring much to know, that still

Nor lead nor steel shall reach him, so

That it be not the Destined Will.

 

The thundering line of battle stands,

And in the air Death moans and sings;

But Day shall clasp him with strong hands,

And Night shall fold him in soft wings.