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PER ARDUA, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: They must have climbed the white mists of the morning
Last Line: Night's darkness, and valhalla's silence now?
Subject(s): Britain, Battle Of (1940)


Per Ardua Ad Astra: Motto of the Royal Canadian Air Force.

(To those who gave their lives to England during the Battle of Britain and
left such a shining example for us to follow, these lines are dedicated.)

They must have climbed the white mists of the morning;
They that have soared, before the world's awake,
To herald up their foemen to them, scorning
The thin dawn's rest their weary folk might take;

Some that left other mouths to tell the story
Of high blue battle,—quite young limbs that bled;
How they had thundered up the clouds to glory
Or fallen to an English field stained red;

Because my faltering feet would fail I find them
Laughing beside me, steadying the hand
That seeks their deadly courage—yet behind them
The cold light dies in that once brilliant land ...

Do these, who help the quickened pulse run slowly,
Whose stern remembered image cools the brow—
To the far dawn of Victory know only
Night's darkness, and Valhalla's silence now?





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