Prose & Poetry - The Muse in Arms - Gifts of the Dead
Updated - Saturday, 17 May, 2003

First published in London in November 1917 and reprinted in February 1918 The Muse in Arms comprised, in the words of editor E. B. Osborne:

"A collection of war poems, for the most part written in the field of action, by seamen, soldiers, and flying men who are serving, or have served, in the Great War".

Below is one of eleven poems featured within The Future Hope section of the collection.  You can access other poems within the section via the sidebar to the right.

Gifts of the Dead
by Rupert Brooke

Blow out, you bugles, over the rich dead!
There's none of these so lonely and poor of old,
But, dying, has made us rarer gifts than gold.
These laid the world away; poured out the red
Sweet wine of youth; gave up the years to be
Of work and joy, and that unhoped serene,
That men call age; and those who would have been,
Their sons, they gave, their immortality.

Blow, bugles, blow! They brought us, for our dearth
Holiness, lacked so long, and Love, and Pain.
Honour has come back, as a king, to earth,
And paid his subjects with a royal wage;
And Nobleness walks in our ways again;
And we have come into our heritage.

"Dry rations" was the sardonic name used by Anzac soldiers to describe religious sermons.

Original Material © Michael Duffy 2000-07, SafeSurf Rated