<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">The Unknown Soldier<br xmlns:exist="http://exist.sourceforge.net/NS/exist" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"/> Armistice Day At Arlington</h1><p class="byline"> GRANTLAND RICE <br xmlns:exist="http://exist.sourceforge.net/NS/exist" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"/><span class="smallcaps">IN The New York Tribune</span><br xmlns:exist="http://exist.sourceforge.net/NS/exist" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"/>Permission to reproduce in this book</p><div class="stanza"><p class="line">THE wind to-day is full of ghosts with ghostly bugles blowing,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Where shadows steal across the world, as silent as the dew.</p><p class="line">Where golden youth is yellow dust, by haunted rivers flowing</p><p class="line">Through valleys where the crosses grow, as harvest wheat is growing,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And only dead men see the line that passes in review.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">The gripping clay once more gives way before the Mighty Mother</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Who waits with everlasting arms to guard her sleeping sons.</p><p class="line">And lonely mates in silent fields call out to one another </p><p class="line">The story of an empty grave, where each has lost a brother,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Who takes the long, long trail at last beyond the rusting guns.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Gently the east wind brought him home to meet the south wind sighing.</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Softly the north wind breathes his name that none of us may know.</p><p class="line">For only those who fell with him, out in the darkness lying,</p><p class="line">Can tell his company or rank, and they are unreplying,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">As each dreams on through summer dawns or winter's mantling snow.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Nameless--and yet how gallantly he faced the roaring thunder</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Where names were less than star-dust as the crashing steel swept by</p><p class="line">To take its endless toll of those the night squad spaded under,</p><p class="line">Clod upon clod, beneath the sod that time alone may sunder,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Held where the wind--blown grasses stir beneath an alien sky.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">He'll miss, perhaps, the poppy blooms that sway above the clover,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">But rose-red wreaths of Arlington bend low above his dreams.</p><p class="line">The reveille at dawn is done, the slogging hikes are over,</p><p class="line">Where out the friendly lanes of home, a gay and careless rover,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">His wild, free spirit seeks the hills and haunts the singing streams.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">No more he moves by Meuse or Aisne, some shell-swept river wading,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">No marching orders call him from his rough-hewn granite grave. </p><p class="line">And when at dusk we hear far off the eerie drum-taps fading, </p><p class="line">What hallowed spot holds more than this, with spectral lines parading </p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Blood of our blood, dust of our dust, "the ashes of our brave''?</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">There will be tears from watching eyes, where rain and mist are blended, </p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">There will be heartache in the lines where gold-starred mothers wait.</p><p class="line">But where the great shells fall no more, what vision is more splendid</p><p class="line">Than peace along the once--scarred fields, the last red battle ended,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Peace that he helped to bring again above the twilight gate?</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Let valor's minstrel voices sing his fame for future pages,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">But when the starless darkness comes and the long silence creeps,</p><p class="line">When blossom mists of spring return or winter torrent rages,</p><p class="line">Write this above his nameless dust, to last beyond the ages, </p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">"Safe in the Mighty Mother's arms an Unknown Soldier sleeps." </p></div></body></html> · Great War