New poem: "We Happy Few"
First stanza written in 2019; the rest written yesterday, and published Here & Now on August, 2023.
Reflecting on my alma mater’s tradition to recite Shakespeare’s beautiful Henry V speech on St. Crispin’s Day, I started writing this poem to honor Henry V—then all our vets. Now, the final elements I added only yesterday were the prayers, and then the rallying cry celebration of the memory of Harry Hoyt Lacey III, my oldest, wisest, and dearest Latin teacher & mentor. Mr. Lacey taught me from the time I was 11 through to when I was a senior in college. He was the grandpa that lived long past my own. And after 2012 he remained a friend of the Exiles and a contributing editor / writer of The Lost Country as long as that particular Fellowship lasted. (He went on to join for a while the secret Fellowship, as a member of SWF - Strangers with Fiction - too.)
I miss that old wizard Harry like the Fellowship missed Gandalf after Moria.
R.I.P.
“WE HAPPY FEW”
BY TYLER MORRISON
Best read in a Hiberno-English accent, like it’s a Dylan Thomas toast at the pub.
For ones that fought and bravely died,
For lucky sons who still survive,
For those who fought and bravely tried
(All efforts are better than none at all),
For Agincourt and all Honor’s War,
Raise up your glass to HARRY’S HALL!
Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!
O, Mary give them comfort. O, Jesus,
King, redeem them, and Michael, O
Thou Angel, thou Saint in Battle,
Fend off the Devils without, within,
Preserve the lines, reserves so thin,
And give our soldiers the Holy Courage
To face Satan's scourges, and every Foe!
Oh, surely, Christ, surely, Lacey,
O Lord Most High, is afforded
No less glory than Thy good King
Harry,
For both were princes brave & grave
Of Thy English Catholic Host.
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