The Old Guard Poem by Robert James Campbell Stead

Knew you the men of the Old Guard ? Men of the camp and trail;
Guard of the van when Time began in the land of grass and gale,
Of a sky-wide land they seized command where the mightiest prevail.

Who were the men of the Old Guard? Giants of strength and will,
Trained in the school of hard-luck rule and daring to die or kill;
Staking their lives, and their young, and wives, on the road up Fortune's hill.

Whence were the men of the Old Guard ? Heroes of ‘82;
From swamp and ledge and ocean's edge they came to see and do,
And they failed at first, and the land they cursed, but they stayed and struggled through.

Hope of the men of the Old Guard ? Little but hope was theirs;
With empty hand in an untried land they clutched at wheat and tares,
And home at night by the wood-fire light was answer to their prayers.

Way of the men of the Old Guard ? What of their end and way ?
You may find their bones by the lime - white stones where the sun-dried sleugh-holes lay,
For the Goddess Trade is a costly jade, and they were the ones to pay.

Joy of the men of the Old Guard ? The joy of the brave and true;
With joy they paced where Death grimaced and his icy vapours blew,
And with steady tread they bore their dead with the faith of the chosen few.

What of the men of the Old Guard ? Ask of the arching skies,
The grass that waves on their leafy graves is lisping their lullabies,
And the lives they spent are their monument and their title to Paradise.