Before Action[]
Enactment of troops "Going over the top" at the start of the Battle of the Somme, 1916. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.
Before Action (By William Noel Hodgson)
By all the glories of the day
And the cool evening's benison
By that last sunset touch that lay
Upon the hills when day was done,
By beauty lavishly outpoured
And blessings carelessly received,
By all the days that I have lived
Make me a soldier, Lord.
By all of all man's hopes and fears
And all the wonders poets sing,
The laughter of unclouded years,
And every sad and lovely thing;
By the romantic ages stored
With high endeavour that was his,
By all his mad catastrophes
Make me a man, O Lord.
I, that on my familiar hill
Saw with uncomprehending eyes
A hundred of thy sunsets spill
Their fresh and sanguine sacrifice,
Ere the sun swings his noonday sword
Must say good-bye to all of this; -
By all delights that I shall miss,
Help me to die, O Lord.
About[]
Hodgson is probably best remembered today for his poem "Before Action," which was written 2 days before he died. It is a commonly held belief that the poem was written with the premonition of his death, from his knowledge of the German machine gun positions; the last line is "Help me to die, O Lord."
This poem is in the public domain