Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.

Youth in Arms

By Harold Monro

HAPPY boy, happy boy,

David the immortal-willed,

Youth a thousand thousand times

Slain, but not once killed,

Swaggering again today

In the old contemptuous way;

Leaning backward from your thigh

Up against the tinselled bar—

Dust and ashes! is it you?

Laughing, boasting, there you are!

First we hardly recognized you

In your modern avatar.

Soldier, rifle, brown khaki—

Is your blood as happy so?

Where’s your sling or painted shield,

Helmet, pike or bow?

Well, you’re going to the wars—

That is all you need to know.

Graybeards plotted. They were sad.

Death was in their wrinkled eyes.

At their tables—with their maps,

Plans and calculations—wise

They all seemed; for well they knew

How ungrudgingly Youth dies.

At their green official baize

They debated all the night

Plans for your adventurous days

Which you followed with delight,

Youth in all your wanderings,

David of a thousand slings.