Explore "Godwin James" by Edgar Lee Masters on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Harry Wilmans! You who fell in a swamp / Near Manila, following the flag, / You were not wounded by the greatness of a dream, / Or destroyed by ineffectual work, / Or driven to madness by Satanic snags;
You were not torn by aching nerves, / Nor did you carry great wounds to your old age.
You did not starve, for the government fed you.
You did not suffer yet cry "forward"
To an army which you led / Against a foe with mocking smiles, / Sharper than bayonets. You were not smitten down / By invisible bombs. You were not rejected / By those for whom you were defeated.
You did not eat the savorless bread / Which a poor alchemy had made from ideals.
You went to Manila, Harry Wilmans, / While I enlisted in the bedraggled army / Of bright-eyed, divine youths, / Who surged forward, who were driven back and fell, / Sick, broken, crying, shorn of faith, / Following the flag of the Kingdom of Heaven.
You and I, Harry Wilmans, have fallen / In our several ways, not knowing / Good from bad, defeat from victory, / Nor what face it is that smiles / Behind the demoniac mask.