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Sonnets For Soldiers

Updated on September 21, 2014

Sonnets and Poems for Soldiers

Below are sonnets and poems that honor soldiers and others that keep our countries safe and free.

I inaugurated this lens on Memorial Day Weekend (USA) 2011. The newest addition is Two Young Men written in November 2013 just before Veteran's Day.

These poems are especially good to read for Veterans Day poems, Memorial Day poems or anytime you want to remember and honor the men and women who have fought valiantly in war.

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All poetry copyright Mindy Makuta (aka MyFairLadyah) Reprint with Permission

For Soldiers and Those Who Love and Honor Them

Two Young Men - a sonnet for soldiers - takes place during the American Civil War

Two young men barely seventeen went forth

Leaving grieved mothers crying salted tears

One from Virginia and one from up North

With bravado and swagger past their years


The rebel boy marched with columns of gray

Heading to Gettysburg out to the west

A rail car ferried the Yankee away

Answering President Lincoln’s behest


Limp bodies bloodied the battlefield girth

Shreds of uniforms lay scattered afield

Shards of metal embedded in the earth

Some men yet salvageable to be healed


The Southern and Northern sons trudged towards home

To grow up loyal to Washington's dome

Too Soon - a sonnet for soldiers

Too soon shall we mark more precious lives lost

O’er the dusty gray hills scattered with scree

Defending liberty at such a cost

Leaving mother and wife and child empty


Peace of Utopia cannot be reached

While darkness clouds minds to be filled with hate

Someday this barrier too shall be breached

For wisdom and respect to flood the gate


Til then the soldiers defend unashamed

Honoring Country though their risks are great

Witnessing their comrades bloodless or maimed

Mentally shouldering burdensome weight


When they, should they, return from death’s cold door

Assuage their pain and love them the more

Sonnet for a Soldier

He walked by the plate glass and caught my eye

In camo chin to heel upright and proud

This was a soldier, not your average guy

Defending our liberty from evil's shroud


A beret sheltered him from the light rain

That thickened the mid-day Arkansas air

Would he compare this to lands full of pain

Where he tried to help amid deep despair


This man made a choice to serve our nation

Giving self to discipline and peril

Being at the ready for a conflagration

Lest the civilized men become feral


The young man nodded slightly at my gaze

Acknowledging our hopes for brighter days

For Those Who Died on Foreign Soil

Lines of white crosses on the coastal hill

Mark a better spot than those unmarked

No matter, we remember their lives still

Though neither flowers nor stones be parked

Think of those souls who bravely fought

On earth or sea far from the home place

And of parents and brides who solace sought

But have no marker a wreath to grace

Poems of the Battlefield

Rules of Engagement

Two armies of men in warrior dress

One on the left hill, one on the right

Will meet in the middle to wrongs redress

As rules of engagement direct the fight

Beat the drum, sound the pipes, as battle is waged

How august is the clash of arms and steel

Generals to foot soldiers duly engaged

Too soon the somber bells shall peal

Turn, turn, the ages and wars have passed

Snipers and terror wait behind tree and stone

On the rocky roads death is dealt by a blast

New rules of engagement in this nether zone

More on Rules of Engagement

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