Чего ж терять им всем, и он
отдавшись пулям, шёл,
борясь,- в той жизни, что потом,
не видя больший толк...
Он Смерть призвал, неустрашим -
с ним устыдившись встреч,
взялась, раз так постыдна им,
его на жизнь обречь...
Как снежный пух легли друзья,
где вьюга кроет наст...
Лишь он остался жив, летя
с его желаньем пасть.
(Эмили - о Солдате,- разве важно о каком?)
[David Preest:
Emily will have read of the mounting numbers of Civil War dead,
and in this poem she tells of one soldier who survived because
of his ‘Greediness to die’ as ‘he gave himself’ (a variant reading
for ‘bestowed himself’ in line 2) to the musket balls of the enemy,
while all around him his less foolhardy comrades
were dying ‘like the Flakes/when Gusts reverse the Snow.’]
**************************************
He fought like those Who've nought to lose -- by Emily Dickinson
He fought like those Who've nought to lose --
Bestowed Himself to Balls
As One who for a further Life
Had not a further Use --
Invited Death -- with bold attempt --
But Death was Coy of Him
As Other Men, were Coy of Death --
To Him -- to live -- was Doom --
His Comrades, shifted like the Flakes
When Gusts reverse the Snow --
But He -- was left alive Because
Of Greediness to die --