When The Regiment Came Back

[ARW]

Came across this poem today. Ella is more famous for Laugh and the world laughs with you, Weep and you weep alone. It seems to sum up what I think must have been reality for a lot of regiments both North and South.


When the Regiment Came Back

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

"All the uniforms were blue, all the swords were bright and new
When the regiment went marching down the street.
All the men were hale and strong as they proudly marched along,
Through the cheers that drowned the music of their feet,
Oh, the music of the feet keeping time to drums that beat,
Oh, the splendor and the glitter of the sight.
As with swords and rifles new and in uniforms of blue,
The regiment went marching to the fight.

When the regiment came back, all the guns and swords were black
And the uniforms had faded out to gray.
And the faces of the men who marched through that street again
Seemed like faces of the dead who lose their way.
For the dead who lose their way cannot look more wan and gray
Oh, the sorrow and the pity of the sight.
Oh, the weary lagging feet, out of step with drums that beat,
As the regiment comes marching from the fight.

 

[JOHN42768]

Interesting poem. Somes it up quite well as it must have been

 

[PatW]

That reminds me of an account I read about WWI. An English nurse saw a regiment going to the front. She noticed that the men were young, strong and vigorous. She was dismayed. She wondered where they managed to scrape up such a unit this late in the war. She had thought they had used all of that up. Then she realized that the troops were Americans newly coming into the fight.

 

[Seduzal]

Thanks for sharing this interesting poem.