Veteran

Lindsay G H Hall 1954 (Oxford)



Veteran

Unkempt, unshaven, in a corner seat

That forever and a day has been

His kingdom, nursing with wizened hands his little gin,
He contemplates in silence his own feet.

Draping the collar of a grubby overcoat,

Shaggy white locks declare not merely years,

But spoilt and wasted wisdom, blast curse

Of spent life, woven with the scabbed soot

Of all our human spate. He’ll not say it, but tears

Are there behind, beneath, beyond the cowl

Of English reserve. His ancient, furrowed brow

Shadows, but cannot hide, the princely scowl

That thinks on comrades – found, made and lost -
In World War I – as were it yesterday – so long ago.
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Submitted by LindsayGeorge on April 29, 2021

Modified by LindsayGeorge on April 29, 2021

34 sec read
12

Quick analysis:

Scheme AXA XXXX XBXBX
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 659
Words 114
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 3, 4, 5

Lindsay G H Hall

Ancient schoolmaster. Prone to write Latin poems. Indigestion with most modern crap, give me Virgil, Milton, Keats, Tennyson. more…

All Lindsay G H Hall poems | Lindsay G H Hall Books

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