<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">Champagne, 1914-15</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">In</span> the glad revels, in the happy fêtes,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">When cheeks are flushed, and glasses gilt and pearled</p><p class="line">With the sweet wine of France that concentrates</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The sunshine and the beauty of the world,</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Drink sometimes, you whose footsteps yet may tread</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The undisturbed, delightful paths of Earth,</p><p class="line">To those whose blood, in pious duty shed,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Hallows the soil where that same wine had birth.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Here, by devoted comrades laid away,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Along our lines they slumber where they fell,</p><p class="line">Beside the crater at the Ferme d'Alger</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And up the bloody slopes of La Pompelle,</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And round the city whose cathedral towers</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The enemies of Beauty dared profane,</p><p class="line">And in the mat of multicolored flowers</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">That clothe the sunny chalk-fields of Champagne.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Under the little crosses where they rise</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The soldier rests. Now round him undismayed</p><p class="line">The cannon thunders, and at night he lies</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">At peace beneath the eternal fusillade...</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">That other generations might possess --</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">From shame and menace free in years to come --</p><p class="line">A richer heritage of happiness,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">He marched to that heroic martyrdom.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Esteeming less the forfeit that he paid</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Than undishonored that his flag might float</p><p class="line">Over the towers of liberty, he made</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">His breast the bulwark and his blood the moat.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Obscurely sacrificed, his nameless tomb,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Bare of the sculptor's art, the poet's lines,</p><p class="line">Summer shall flush with poppy-fields in bloom,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And Autumn yellow with maturing vines.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">There the grape-pickers at their harvesting</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Shall lightly tread and load their wicker trays,</p><p class="line">Blessing his memory as they toil and sing</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">In the slant sunshine of October days...</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">I love to think that if my blood should be</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">So privileged to sink where his has sunk,</p><p class="line">I shall not pass from Earth entirely,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">But when the banquet rings, when healths are drunk,</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And faces that the joys of living fill</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Glow radiant with laughter and good cheer,</p><p class="line">In beaming cups some spark of me shall still</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Brim toward the lips that once I held so dear.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">So shall one coveting no higher plane</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Than nature clothes in color and flesh and tone,</p><p class="line">Even from the grave put upward to attain</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The dreams youth cherished and missed and might have known;</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And that strong need that strove unsatisfied</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Toward earthly beauty in all forms it wore,</p><p class="line">Not death itself shall utterly divide</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">From the belovèd shapes it thirsted for.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Alas, how many an adept for whose arms</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Life held delicious offerings perished here,</p><p class="line">How many in the prime of all that charms,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Crowned with all gifts that conquer and endear!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Honor them not so much with tears and flowers,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">But you with whom the sweet fulfilment lies,</p><p class="line">Where in the anguish of atrocious hours</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Turned their last thoughts and closed their dying eyes,</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Rather when music on bright gatherings lays</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Its tender spell, and joy is uppermost,</p><p class="line">Be mindful of the men they were, and raise</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Your glasses to them in one silent toast.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Drink to them -- - amorous of dear Earth as well,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">They asked no tribute lovelier than this -- -</p><p class="line">And in the wine that ripened where they fell,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Oh, frame your lips as though it were a kiss.</p></div><p class="byline">Alan Seeger</p><p> Champagne, France July, 1915 </p></body></html> · Great War