Robert William Service (16 January 1874 - 11 September 1958 / Preston)

A tragedy indeed. When our heroes can't cope and we aren't there to council.

war is a word invented by man to justify killing now it's self defensemd

The poor warrior
Hired to protect the booty
Of the company of traders
From west to east
Plunder and plunder
And follows the gospel
Anointed holy
Crown and cross
With sacks full
The warrior returns
To the north land
For many an avarice
His head without pride
So he commits suicide
“The echo of his deeds is ringing yet -
Will ring for aye. All else... let us forget”

Please spare us the usual whine full of the current fashionable political correctness and the garbled grammar of twisted logic!

First of all, Service makes clear that the poem expresses the tragedy of one man's life! The suicide was committed by a soldier whose king was proud to shake his hand (doubtless after pinning the Victoria Cross on his Highlander's scarlet tunic!) and princes of the realm called him friend. What was the world that Service alludes to but the British Empire before its post-WW2 decline into a welfare state! The ever-present taint of 'racism' (the only sin recognized in the modern welfare state) makes its way into a 'first class poem with great lines' (thank you for the left-handed compliment) ! Why in the world cannot his 'disgrace' be simply his failure to die in battle, as a loyal soldier of his country might well long for?

Poetic stanzas are perfect in execution! Bravery of old story might inspire the present soldiers at wars! But those days are gone! Now in the modern world war no bravery is needed as all fight with great protection without any risk at all thanks to new technological inventions in war machines!

The Empire ends with a single round to the head! And it's still rocking. says the bard of the stereotypical response to everything that he reads here and everywhere from the highland hills to the desert sands of the Bedouin warrior!
Whatever that means, you tell me! IS IT POETRY? he signs off but never reveals his innermost thoughts on the subject, except that 'it's still rocking'!

I think he means that the end for a warrior is always violent. You live by the sword, etc. Save the last bullet for yourself, etc. You like its history? It lifts the spirits of present-day knights in shining, etc. Here's to you, Robert W. Service and the likes of Dan McGrew!

While lying such transposed the world of his from start to finish flew from eye to mind the lot of warrior lives...) it(s still rocking....

I like it history, lifts spirit of the present knights...

That's absolutely brilliant.

This was wonderful and the punctuation was great...
Keep writing.

Mariam