E. H. Shepard, “Buckingham Palace”
Wednesday – Veterans Day
In honor of our men and women in uniform, here’s an A. E. Housman poem that mentions the distance between the military and the civilian worlds. In the United States, this distance has only become more pronounced since the ending of the draft in the 1970s. While we may tell soldiers we appreciate the service, politicians now appear to have fewer qualms about sending them into battle. After all, they no longer have to fear 1960s style protest movements.
In the poem, however, the gap is overcome in a single moment of contact between a soldier and an observer. Although they know nothing of each other, the momentary connection allows the speaker to genuinely wish the soldier well.
Send your heart out to our veterans today.
The Street Sounds to the Soldiers’ Tread
By A. E. Housman
The street sounds to the soldiers’ tread,
And out we troop to see:
A single redcoat turns his head,
He turns and looks at me.
My man, from sky to sky’s so far,
We never crossed before;
Such leagues apart the world’s ends are,
We’re like to meet no more;
What thoughts at heart have you and I
We cannot stop to tell;
But dead or living, drunk or dry,
Soldier, I wish you well.