Strength to War
Stephen Stepanchev 1915 (Serbia) – 2017
Dear stranger, reading this small, true book
By a simple man who loved much and wasn't loved,
Merging your own life with the lines on this page,
Lines that remind you of some frightening shore,
Cold rains, shipwreck, and loud winds and waves,
Stirring your lonely mind with brutal images
That conjure loves forgotten, fears disclaimed,
Joining your pulse with mine, tasting my blood,
The salt, salt blood of a tortured, common man,
What can I say, stranger, what say of war
To limber fear-stiff fingers, give one strength
Against the exploding years, the enclosing dark?
It is indeed night and cold. Wind-blown mist
Spins from the river, shrouds valley and hill-top,
Binding my eyes. My post: three blocks in circuit.
My law: the safety of others: a guard's aim.
My boots make sounds in the gravel where I walk,
My rifle jiggles the shoulder gas mask binding,
My leggings rustle to unseen forest leaves.
But my pulse, too, strikes loud at my wakeful ears,
Loud as the irate colonel and the clamoring world,
And I think a soldier's thoughts of time foregone,
Of fervor of an apple branch in June,
And a lover's hand brushing my casual sleeve.
How kill the brown-haired image, how end the desperate need?
Who'll smirk at the eye clouded, the mouth shaken,
The gentle hand wavering at the gun?
Dear stranger, there is loss, forever loss,
And what we add to life we later subtract
In bitterness and age and friendlessness.
A man earns strength to war only by dying.
About this poem
Stephen Stepanchev, “Strength to War” from Poetry vol. 62, no. 5, August 1943. Source: Poetry (August 1943)
Font size:
Written on 1943
Submitted by Drone232 on August 23, 2022
Modified on April 27, 2023
- 1:26 min read
- 32 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | XXXABXXXXAXX XXXXXCXXXXXXXDD XXBC |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 1,463 |
Words | 282 |
Stanzas | 3 |
Stanza Lengths | 12, 15, 4 |
Translation
Find a translation for this poem in other languages:
Select another language:
- - Select -
- 简体
中 文 (Chinese - Simplified) -
繁 體 中 文 (Chinese - Traditional) - Español (Spanish)
- Esperanto (Esperanto)
-
日本語 (Japanese) - Português (Portuguese)
- Deutsch (German)
- العربية (Arabic)
- Français (French)
- Русский (Russian)
- ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
- 한국어 (Korean)
- עברית (Hebrew)
- Gaeilge (Irish)
- Українська (Ukrainian)
- اردو (Urdu)
- Magyar (Hungarian)
- मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
- Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Italiano (Italian)
- தமிழ் (Tamil)
- Türkçe (Turkish)
- తెలుగు (Telugu)
- ภาษาไทย (Thai)
- Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
- Čeština (Czech)
- Polski (Polish)
- Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Românește (Romanian)
- Nederlands (Dutch)
- Ελληνικά (Greek)
- Latinum (Latin)
- Svenska (Swedish)
- Dansk (Danish)
- Suomi (Finnish)
- فارسی (Persian)
- ייִדיש (Yiddish)
- հայերեն (Armenian)
- Norsk (Norwegian)
- English (English)
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Strength to War" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 14 Oct. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/134725/strength-to-war>.
Discuss the poem Strength to War with the community...
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In