Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.

Decoration for Valor

Hortense Flexner

THIS boy, who stands so straight

While the General pins the medal on his coat,

May be thinking of a frame house

On Kelley Avenue in South Bend,

Or of the misery of having everyone look at him

While the trumpets blare.

But if I should ask him if he remembered

Curtius of Rome,

Or Childe Roland,

Or the Stainless Knight,

He would shake his head awkwardly

And say,

“No ma’am.”