Pilgrims



For oh, when the war will be over
    We'll go and we'll look for our dead;
We'll go when the bee's on the clover,
    And the plume of the poppy is red:
We'll go when the year's at its gayest,
    When meadows are laughing with flow'rs;
And there where the crosses are greyest,
    We'll seek for the cross that is ours.

For they cry to us: Friends, we are lonely,
    A-weary the night and the day;
But come in the blossom-time only,
    Come when our graves will be gay:
When daffodils all are a-blowing,
    And larks are a-thrilling the skies,
Oh, come with the hearts of you glowing,
    And the joy of the Spring in your eyes.

But never, oh, never come sighing,
    For ours was the Splendid Release;
And oh, but 'twas joy in the dying
    To know we were winning you Peace!
So come when the valleys are sheening,
    And fledged with the promise of grain;
And here where our graves will be greening,
    Just smile and be happy again.

And so, when the war will be over,
    We'll seek for the Wonderful One;
And maiden will look for her lover,
    And mother will look for her son;
And there will be end to our grieving,
    And gladness will gleam over loss,
As -- glory beyond all believing!
    We point . . . to a name on a cross.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 22, 2023

1:11 min read
81

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABBCBC DEDEFCFC FCFCFXFX AGAGFCFC
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,219
Words 230
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8, 8

Robert William Service

Robert William Service was a poet and writer sometimes referred to as the Bard of the Yukon He is best-known for his writings on the Canadian North including the poems The Shooting of Dan McGrew The Law of the Yukon and The Cremation of Sam McGee His writing was so expressive that his readers took him for a hard-bitten old Klondike prospector not the later-arriving bank clerk he actually was Robert William Service was born 16 January 1874 in Preston England but also lived in Scotland before emigrating to Canada in 1894 Service went to the Yukon Territory in 1904 as a bank clerk and became famous for his poems about this region which are mostly in his first two books of poetry He wrote quite a bit of prose as well and worked as a reporter for some time but those writings are not nearly as well known as his poems He travelled around the world quite a bit and narrowly escaped from France at the beginning of the Second World War during which time he lived in Hollywood California He died 11 September 1958 in France Incidentally he played himself in a movie called The Spoilers starring John Wayne and Marlene Dietrich more…

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