TO THE YOUNG WRITERS AND ARTISTS KILLED IN THE WAR 1914-18

We haven’t forgotten you !  We haven’t forgotten !

You were the first generation of the world’s greatest century,

And you were doing, and were going to do, fine things . . .

You were a great Young Generation . . .

And then you went out and got murdered –- magnificently—

Went out and got murdered . . . because a parcel of

          damned old men

Wanted some fun, or some power, or something.

    Something so despicable in comparison to your young lives.

Anyhow, you were glorious . . .

And we will do our best to do what you have done.

Oh, we will fight for your ideals – we, who were too

        young to be murdered with you. . . .

And—we haven’t forgotten you !  We haven’t forgotten !

--Brian Howard, published in the Eton Candle, 1922

Late Night Final (Brian Howard)

Poets, write your final poems

    Lovers, play your game ---

The leaves will fall for different reasons

One of these autumns, and none of the seasons

     Will ever be quite the same.

Sparkling soldiers now prepare

      What they were born to do---

The death for which they live their lives

They wish to share it with their wives

       Their children, and with you.

-- Brian Howard

(Published in Harper's Magazine, March 1952)

T0-DAY (Brian Howard)

The suicides will never cease

To sweep the peaks in fighter planes

Informers, or the rich, will keep

The valley for their patriot pains.

The epoch of the second finest

Killing for the second best

Hangs like a ticket round our journey--

A welcome, then, to unsuccess.

Madness-in-action on the height

The spirit's death below--

There's only left the timber line

Where the pine meets the snow.

Where the last of Europe's eagles

Starve, and watch the mountain road

With the ibex for their sentry

And the wind for their abode.

 Brian Howard
(Published in Harper's Magazine, 1952)