Ode In Memory Of The American Volunteers Fallen For France

(To have been read before the statue of Lafayette and Washington in

Paris, on Decoration Day, May 30, 1916.)

  Ay, it is fitting on this holiday,

  Commemorative of our soldier dead,

  When—with sweet flowers of our New England May

  Hiding the lichened stones by fifty years made gray—

  Their graves in every town are garlanded,

  That pious tribute should be given too

  To our intrepid few

  Obscurely fallen here beyond their seas.

  Those to preserve their country's greatness died;

  But by the death of these

  Something that we can look upon with pride

  Has been achieved, nor wholly unreplied

  Can sneerers triumph in the charge they make

  That from a war where Freedom was at stake

  America withheld and, daunted, stood aside.II

  Be they remembered here with each reviving spring,

  Not only that in May, when life is loveliest,

  Around Neuville-Saint-Vaast and the disputed crest

  Of Vimy, they, superb, unfaltering,

  In that fine onslaught that no fire could halt,

  Parted impetuous to their first assault;

  But that they brought fresh hearts and springlike too

  To that high mission, and 'tis meet to strew

  With twigs of lilac and spring's earliest rose

  The cenotaph of those

  Who in the cause that history most endears

  Fell in the sunny morn and flower of their young years.III

  Yet sought they neither recompense nor praise,

  Nor to be mentioned in another breath

  Than their blue-coated comrades whose great days

  It was their pride to share—ay, share even to the death!

  Nay, rather, France, to you they rendered thanks

  (Seeing they came for honour, not for gain),

  Who, opening to them your glorious ranks,

  Gave them that grand occasion to excel,

  That chance to live the life most free from stain

  And that rare privilege of dying well.IV

  O friends! I know not since that war began

  From which no people nobly stands aloof

  If in all moments we have given proof

  Of virtues that were thought American.

  I know not if in all things done and said

  All has been well and good,

  Or of each one of us can hold his head

  As proudly as he should,

  Or, from the pattern of those mighty dead

  Whose shades our country venerates to-day,

  If we 've not somewhat fallen and somewhat gone astray,

  But you to whom our land's good name is dear,

  If there be any here

  Who wonder if her manhood be decreased,

  Relaxed its sinews and its blood less red

  Than that at Shiloh and Antietam shed,

  Be proud of these, have joy in this at least,

  And cry: `Now heaven be praised

  That in that hour that most imperilled her,

  Menaced her liberty who foremost raised

  Europe's bright flag of freedom, some there were

  Who, not unmindful of the antique debt,

  Came back the generous path of Lafayette;

  And when of a most formidable foe

  She checked each onset, arduous to stem—

  Foiled and frustrated them—

  On those red fields where blow with furious blow

  Was countered, whether the gigantic fray

  Rolled by the Meuse or at the Bois Sabot,

  Accents of ours were in the fierce mêlée;

  And on those furthest rims of hallowed ground

  Where the forlorn, the gallant charge expires,

  When the slain bugler has long ceased to sound,

  And on the tangled wires

  The last wild rally staggers, crumbles, stops,

  Withered beneath the shrapnel's iron showers:—

  Now heaven be thanked, we gave a few brave drops;

  Now heaven be thanked, a few brave drops were ours.'V

  There, holding still, in frozen steadfastness,

  Their bayonets toward the beckoning frontiers,

  They lie—our comrades—lie among their peers,

  Clad in the glory of fallen warriors,

  Grim clustered under thorny trellises,

  Dry, furthest foam upon disastrous shores,

  Leaves that made last year beautiful, still strewn

  Even as they fell, unchanged, beneath the changing moon;

  And earth in her divine indifference

  Rolls on, and many paltry things and mean

  Prate to be heard and caper to be seen.

  But they are silent, clam; their eloquence

  Is that incomparable attitude;

  No human presences their witness are,

  But summer clouds and sunset crimson-hued,

  And showers and night winds and the northern star

  Nay, even our salutations seem profane,

  Opposed to their Elysian quietude;

  Our salutations calling from afar,

  From our ignobler plane

  And undistinction of our lesser parts:

  Hail, brothers, and farewell; you are twice blest, brave hearts.

  Double your glory is who perished thus,

  For you have died for France and vindicated us.

Composition date is unknown - the above date represents the first publication date.Form: couplets, triplets, and quatrains.1.The statue dedicated to the memory of the Marquis de Lafayette(1757-1834), French general, and George Washington (1732-99), firstAmerican president, stands in the Place des Etats-Unis in Paris. TheAmerican colony in France invited Seeger to read this poemon May 30, 1916, but official permission for him to go on leave did notarrive in time (Irving Werstein, Sound no Trumpet: The Life and Deathof Alan Seeger [New York: Crowell, 1967], p. 126\;PS 3537 E26Z9 Robarts Library), and the poem was only made public posthumously.18.Neuville-Saint-Vaast: area four miles north of Arras in thePas de Calais, northern France, the site of much fightingin World War I.19.Vimy: In 1915 the Allies stormed Vimy Ridge (near Artois) butfailed to take it: 225,000 lives were lost.53.Shiloh: battle fought April 6-7, 1862, near Shiloh Church, two milesfrom Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, in the American civil war. Antietam: Maryland creek where a battle in the American civil warwas fought September 16-17, 1862, near the town of Sharpsburg (for whichthe battle is also named). 66.the Meuse: river flowing from northern France throughBelgium into the North Sea, near which (e.g., at Verdun inspring 1916) fighting went on for years in World War I.Bois Sabot: not located.94.Elysian: the Elysian Fields, dwelling place of thehappy dead in the underworld of classical myth.