Read Poems That Make Grown Men Cry for Free Online Page B

sheltered.
    Sheltered? Yes, from flood; but not from glaciers.
    Two years later it all lay under the snow.
    Yet not even an avalanche could crack his courage.
    He dug, and cleared, and carted away the debris,
    And before the next winter-snows came drifting
    His little house was builtfor the third time.
    He had three sons, three fine vigorous boys;
    They should go to school, but the school was a long way off.
    They could only reach the end of the valley road
    By going through a narrow, precipitous pass.
    What did he do? The eldest looked after himself
    As best he could, and where the track dropped steeply
    This man roped him round to give him support;
    The others he bore in his arms and on his back.
    He toiled like this, year after year, until
    The sons were men. Time, you would have thought,
    To get some return. Three prosperous gentlemen
    In the New World have managed to forget
    Their Norwegian father and those journeys to school.
    His horizon was narrow. Apart from the few
    Who were nearest to him, nothing else existed.
    The ringing words that rouse other men’s hearts
    Meant nothing to him, more than a tinkle of bells.
    Mankind, the fatherland, the highest ambitions
    Of men, were only misty figures to him.
    But he had humility, humility, this man;
    And after that call-up day he always carried
    The shame of the verdict, as surely as his cheeks
    Carried the burn of shyness, and his four
    Fingers hid in his pocket. – An offender
    Against the laws of the land? Yes, indeed!
    But there’s one thing that shines above the law,
    As truly as the bright tent of Glitretind
    Has even higherpeaks of cloud above it.
    He was a poor patriot. To State
    And Church, an unproductive tree. But there
    On the brow of the hill, within the narrow
    Circle of family, where his work was done,
    There he was great, because he was himself.
    He matched up to the living sounds he was born with.
    His life was like a music on muted strings.
    So peace be with you, silent warrior,
    Who strove and fell in the peasant’s little war!
    We won’t try to probe the ways of his heart.
    That’s for his Maker, not for us, to do.
    But I can hold this hope, with little doubt;
    He is not maimed now as he stands before his God.
    (1867)
    TRANSLATION BY CHRISTOPHER FRY

    Sir Kenneth Branagh (b. 1960) is one of Britain’s most successful actors and directors in film, television and theatre. In addition to his acclaimed cinema adaptations of
Shakespeare’s plays, he has also directed and/or acted in films such as
Valkyrie
(2008)
, Thor
(2010),
My Week with Marilyn
(2011) and
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
(2014). He has had huge TV success with his BAFTA-winningportrayal of Wallander and has received five Academy Award nominations in five different categories.

Requiem
    ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON (1850–94)

    CHRISTOPHER BUCKLEY
    Probably unnecessary to explain why this poem almost always brings tears to my eyes. It speaks for itself. In April 2008, I recited it from memory at St Patrick’s
Cathedral, New York City, in front of 2,200 people at the memorial mass for the repose of my father’s soul. It was a particularfavourite of his, and well describes him. On that occasion I
managed not to cry, having rehearsed in private until my ducts had run dry. But I did slightly clutch at the penultimate line.
    Requiem
    Under the wide and starry sky,
    Dig the grave and let me lie.
    Glad did I live and gladly die,
    And I laid me down with a will.
    This be the verse you ’grave for me:
    Here he lies where he longed to be;
    Home is the sailor, home from sea,
    And the hunter home from the hill.
    (1880–1884)

    Once a speechwriter to President George H. W. Bush, which resulted in his first comic novel,
The White House Mess
(1986), Christopher Buckley (b. 1952)has published
numerous satirical novels including
Thank You for Smoking
(1994), which was filmed by Jason Reitman;
Little Green Men
(1999);
No Way to Treat a First Lady
(2002);
Florence
of Arabia
(2004);
Boomsday
(2007);
Supreme