 | The Poems of Richard Watson Gilder |  |
“A WONDROUS SONG”
A wondrous song,Rank with sea smells and the keen lust of life;
Echoing with battle trumpets, and the moan
Of dying men in reeking hospitals;
Thrilling all through with human pity and love
And crying courage in the face of doom;—
With all its love of life still praising death
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And with high anger and a god-like scorn
Passionately proclaiming life in death
And the unquenched, immortal soul of man—
A wondrous song,
Trembling with unshed tears and life's full joy,
Burst the tense meshes of the critic's web
And sang itself into eternal day.
| The Poems of Richard Watson Gilder | |