"Favorite 4 LINES of military poetry" Topic

The sarissa is a sad song
Its pipes are soft and low
I would ply a softer trade
but war is all I know.

One of alexander the greats veterans.

Their shoulders held the sky suspended;
They stood, and earth's foundations stay;
What God abandoned, these defended,
And saved the sum of things for pay.

A.E. Housman "Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries"
The entire poem is only eight lines, but I'll honor the OFM's wishes.

I'm also quite fond of the opening lines (there are only six total) of Hugh McDiarmad's "Another Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries".

It is a God-damned lie to say that they
Saved, or knew, anything worth any man's pride.
They were professional murderers and they took
Their blood money and impious risks and died.

But they rode like victors and lords
Thro' the forest of lances and swords
In the heart of the Russian hordes,
They rode, or they stood at bay–

The Charge of the Heavy Brigade at Balaclava
Alfred Lord Tennyson

All great lines

"Whatever happens, we have got
The Maxim Gun, and they have not"

Hilaire Belloc, "The Modern Traveler"

And to return to Kipling

"The 'eathen in 'is blindness must end where 'e began,
But the backbone of the Army is the Non-commissioned Man!"

"The 'eahten"

And forward they sprang and spurred and slashed
Shouted the officers crimson washed
Rode well the men, each brave as his fellow
In their faded coats of blue and yellow

‘A moth-eaten rag on a worm-eaten pole, It does not look likely to stir a man's Soul, 'Tis the deeds that were done 'neath the moth-eaten rag, When the pole was a staff, and the rag was a flag.'

Sung by Julius Caesar's legions at his Triumph. Courtesy of Suetonius. Pick your favorite translation.

"Home we bring our bald monger,
Romans, lock your wives away!
All the bags of gold you lent him,
Went his Gallic tarts to pay."

Sung to the tune of the Cornell University Alma Mater. 🙄🎼🎶
"Far above Cayuga's waters…"
Oh, Google it yourself. As Penny said to Sheldon, "I'm not gonna do all the work, Buddy."

"Land of Song," said the warrior bard,
"Though all the world betray thee,
One sword at least thy right shall guard,
One faithful harp shall praise thee,"

— The Minstrel Boy (I first heard it on Star Trek: The Next Generation)

The same tune with different lyrics appears as a martial hymn, sung by Sean Connery's character in The Man Who Would Be King:

"The Son of Man goes forth to war
A kingly crown to gain
His blood-red banner streams before—
Who follows in his train?"

Both versions are enormously evocative.

MacLeod's wizard flag from the grey castle sallies,
The rowers are seated, unmoored are the galleys;
Gleam war axe and claymore, clang target and quiver,
As MacCrimmon plays farewell to Dunvegan forever.

(Sir Walter Scott, I believe, after "Cha Till Mac Cruimein", MacCrimmon Will Never Return, the traditional piper's lament, 1745-46.)

"Good-morning, good-morning!" the General said
When we met him last week on our way to the line.
Now the soldiers he smiled at are most of 'em dead,
And we're cursing his staff for incompetent swine.

from The General by Siegfried Sassoon (the whole thing is only seven lines)

The last three lines of the above are also spot on:

‘He's a cheery old card,' grunted Harry to Jack
As they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack.

But he did for them both by his plan of attack.

The General, Siegfried Sassoon

More than four lines, but still unforgetable:

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin,
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs
Bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, —
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Dulce Et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen

from "For the Fallen"
by Laurence Binyon, 1914

… They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn./q>

It's a pity that the modern/popular versions of the poem have replaced "contemn" with "condemn". Contemn fits better, but most people apparently didn't understand the word (or thought Binyon typo'd?).

I'm away from home and cut off from my Howard. Can anyone provide the chapter heading Bossonian Marching song which ends "and the King of Koth for a mark?" Or the last two lines of the longer poem which ends "… breed a race of kings, but we of Connaught breed men?"

You do not cheer him as the recruits might cheer
but you say "Ulysses doesn't scare worth a darn.
Ulysses is all right. He can finish a job."
And at last your long lines go past in the Grand Review
And your legend and his begin and are mixed forever.

From John Brown's Body by Steven Vincent Benet

And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds
For the ashes of his fathers
And the temples of his God?

From "Horatius" by Thomas Macauley

So many terrific stanzas here!! I'm glad to see others fill in things I wanted to submit but held back on, thinking I was hogging the board.

If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

"In Flanders Fields" by John McCrae

You are the most excellent of men
and your lips have been anointed with grace,
since God has blessed you forever.

Gird your sword on your side, you mighty one;
clothe yourself with splendor and majesty.

In your majesty ride forth victoriously
in the cause of truth, humility and justice;
let your right hand achieve awesome deeds.

Let your sharp arrows pierce the hearts of the king's enemies;
let the nations fall beneath your feet.

Psalm 45 verses 2-5 (NIV)