Soldier Poet

TO F RANCIS F OWLER H OGAN .

I think at first like us he did not see
The goal to which the screaming eagles flew;
For romance lured him, France, and chivalry;
BuToh! Before the end he knew, he knew!
And gave his first full love to Liberty,
And met her face to face one lurid night
While the guns boomed their shuddering minstrelsy
And all the Argonne glowed with demon light.
And Liberty herself came through the wood,
And with her dear, boy lover kept the tryst;
Clasped in her grand, Greek arms he understood
Whose were the fatal lips that he had kissed —
Lips that the soul of Youth has loved from old —
Hot lips of Liberty that kiss men cold.