Alan Seeger
Purged, with the life they left, of all
That makes life paltry and mean and small,
In their new dedication charged
With something heightened, enriched, enlarged,
That lends a light to their lusty brows
And a song to the rhythm of their trampling feet,
These are the men that have taken vows,
These are the hardy, the flower, the élite,—
These are the men that are moved no more
By the will to traffic and grasp and store
And ring with pleasure and wealth and love
The circles that self is the centre of;
But they are moved by the powers that force
The sea for ever to ebb and rise,
That hold Arcturus in his course,
And marshal at noon in tropic skies
The clouds that tower on some snow-capped chair
And drift out over the peopled plain.
They are big with the beauty of cosmic things.
Mark how their columns surge! They seem
To follow the goddess with outspread wings
That points toward Glory, the soldier’s dream.
With bayonets bare and flags unfurled,
They scale the summits of the world
And fade on the farthest golden height
In fair horizons full of light.
Comrades in arms there—friend or foe—
That trod the perilous, toilsome trail
Through a world of ruin and blood and woe
In the years of great decision—hail!
Friend or foe, it shall matter nought;
This only matters, in fine: we fought.
For we were young and in love or strife
Sought exultation and craved excess:
To sound the wildest debauch in life
We staked our youth and its loveliness.
Let idlers argue the right and wrong
And weigh what merit our causes had.
Putting our faith in being strong—
Above the level of good and bad—
For us, we battled and burned and killed
Because evolving Nature willed,
And it was our pride and boast to be
The instruments of Destiny.
There was a stately drama writ
By the hand that peopled the earth and air
And set the stars in the infinite
And made night gorgeous and morning fair,
And all that had sense to reason knew
That bloody drama must be gone through.
Some sat and watched how the action veered—
Waited, profited, trembled, cheered—
We saw not clearly nor understood,
But yielding ourselves to the master hand,
Each in his part as best he could,
We played it through as the author planned.
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Analysis (AI Assisted)
This war poem examines the transformative effect of battle, exploring both the ideals that drive soldiers to war and the complex, sometimes conflicting emotions they experience in the process. The speaker presents war not only as a brutal force of destruction but as a higher calling—an avenue through which soldiers shed their “small” desires and transcend into something larger than themselves. The poem starts by describing these soldiers as “purged,” elevated beyond the petty concerns of civilian life, into a state where they are “charged / With something heightened, enriched, enlarged.”
The soldiers, according to the speaker, are no longer driven by “the will to traffic and grasp and store”—the usual desires for wealth, pleasure, and self-interest. Instead, they are guided by forces that are grand, cosmic, and uncontrollable, like the ebb and flow of the sea, the movement of the stars, or the shape of clouds. There is a sense of awe and reverence for these forces, as if the soldiers are mere instruments of a higher power or a divine will. This depiction elevates the soldiers from mere participants in a violent conflict to “the hardy, the flower, the élite”—individuals who have stepped beyond the ordinary scope of human experience.
The poem also evokes a sense of unity and purpose, as the soldiers “trample” toward their shared goal, seemingly moved by a collective force that drives them. The reference to “the goddess with outspread wings” symbolizes the allure of glory, the idealized vision of heroism that soldiers chase as they “scale the summits of the world.” The idea of soldiers marching toward some distant, golden horizon is a metaphor for their ultimate goal of glory, or at least the noble pursuit of it.
As the poem progresses, the speaker shifts from idealism to a more grounded reflection on the experience of war. The lines “Comrades in arms there—friend or foe— / That trod the perilous, toilsome trail” acknowledge the shared experience of soldiers, regardless of which side they are on. War, in this sense, is presented as something that transcends the notions of right and wrong, with the emphasis on action rather than moral judgment. The phrase “it shall matter nought; / This only matters, in fine: we fought” suggests that the act of fighting, of being part of the struggle, is what defines the soldiers’ experience, not necessarily the cause for which they are fighting.
This detachment from the morality of the conflict is reinforced with lines like “Let idlers argue the right and wrong / And weigh what merit our causes had.” The soldiers’ commitment to action overrides questions of ethical justification. They fought because “evolving Nature willed” it, as though their participation in the war is a fulfillment of some grand, natural order. This stark, almost fatalistic view of war as an inevitable and predestined event adds complexity to the poem’s portrayal of soldiers. They are not simply victims of circumstance, but participants in a drama that is beyond their full understanding, acting out their parts in a cosmic play.
The poem culminates in a recognition of war’s absurdity and futility, but also its inevitability. “Some sat and watched how the action veered— / Waited, profited, trembled, cheered— / We saw not clearly nor understood, / But yielding ourselves to the master hand, / Each in his part as best he could, / We played it through as the author planned.” Here, the speaker admits that the soldiers did not fully comprehend the broader consequences of their actions. Yet, they played their roles, moved by forces beyond their control, as though they were actors in a script written by “the hand that peopled the earth and air.” This suggests that, for all the idealism surrounding war, there is an underlying acknowledgment of its chaotic, arbitrary nature.
In its final lines, the poem portrays the soldiers as pawns in a larger, cosmic game. They are “instruments of Destiny,” and their actions, while seemingly heroic or tragic, are ultimately part of a broader design. This resignation to fate is a key theme in the poem. It frames war as something that must be “gone through” because it is part of the natural course of life, rather than a conscious, ethical choice.
Overall, this poem grapples with the contradictions of war: the desire for glory, the ideal of noble sacrifice, and the inevitable recognition of the senselessness of violence. It captures the internal tension of soldiers caught between their lofty dreams of heroism and the brutal realities of the battlefield. While the soldiers may begin their journey in pursuit of something greater, they ultimately end up as participants in a drama that they do not fully understand, doing their duty because it is “written” for them to do so.