Margretta Scott. David. Harriet Monroe, ed. Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912-22

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22.

David

By Margretta Scott


From “Side-lights on War” HE was a poet.
And because beauty burned within him
Beauty was around him.
He walked through life on tip-toe, hugging dreams.
In him was a gentle eagerness,	5
And to him all women were good
And all children beautiful.
The sky was a minstrel ground
And the moon and stars ancient players;
Water sang to him,	10
And flowers prayed to him.
The day was a packet for delight;
The night a box for beauty.

When the wings of War whizzed in his ears,
He was kindled as with a million torches.	15
Because he was a poet
He became an aviator.
He rode his bird of War through the clouds,
And the winds wailed before and after him.
One day, as a bright bird falls,	20
He fell from the sky.
And he died chanting his hymn to War—
And War was beauty.