Explore "Many Soldiers" by Edgar Lee Masters on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The idea danced before us as a flag;
The sound of martial music;
The thrill of carrying a gun;
Advancement in the world on coming home;
A glint of glory, wrath for foes;
A dream of duty to country or to God.
But these were things in ourselves, shining before us, / They were not the power behind us, / Which was the Almighty hand of Life, / Like fire at earth's center making mountains, / Or pent up waters that cut them through.
Do you remember the iron band / The blacksmith, Shack Dye, welded / Around the oak on Bennet's lawn, / From which to swing a hammock, / That daughter Janet might repose in, reading / On summer afternoons?
And that the growing tree at last / Sundered the iron band?
But not a cell in all the tree / Knew aught save that it thrilled with life, / Nor cared because the hammock fell / In the dust with Milton's Poems.