Summons to battle
I’ve been working very hard this past year on an historical novel set in May of 1864 at the beginning of our Civil War’s climactic campaign. The experience was humbling. The importance of the events I depicted forced me to seek the utmost clarity and truth in the words I used. You’ll all have a chance to judge my success next year when the novel is published. I wrote a villanelle to introduce the story. It just achieved Honor Scroll Award status in the Poets Laureate Contest. Here’s the poem:
Dawn Drums
They march again to war,
Sniffling, shuffling, voices muffled,
Through dawn’s uncertain door
Youth and man, rich and poor,
Through campfires’ smothered smokes
They march again to war,
From college, farm and store
They carry loaded muskets
Through dawn’s uncertain door
Damp drums tapping, four by four,
Meadow mists like ghosts ahead,
They march again to war
Black cannon mouths, fresh gore,
Shattered limbs and death await
Through dawn’s uncertain door
Flags yet furled
And bayonets sheathed,
They march again to war
Through dawn’s uncertain door
This is very great. I translate it to Vietnamese that a similarity about war