TO THOSE WHO DEFENDED

(THE LLOYD MCKIM GARRISON Pmzia POEM
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, 1916)

I

How vain it seems, how vain the valiant strength
Of nations risen in splendour t0 the sun,

For down the weary stretch of battle-length
Surges a conflict that is never done,

And of all victories and losses, none

Survives the memory of a day, and time

Takes back the withering garlands one by one

Of vaunted triumph and of cause sublime.

O Dead who sacrificed your years of prime,

You sacrificed them vainly, and but died

Like actors in some oft-repeated mime,

Some outworn play of Lust and Greed and Pride,
Some allegory writ by bloody hands

Far in the unknown past, in devastated lands.

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