To A Young Man Poem by A. P. Herbert

Seneca—Solon—Caesar or Cicero—
Take any old and noble name you know,
Denounce the dead, spray poison in the home-
You still will not remind us much of Rome.

Fortunate youth, unfit for foreign shore,
You can be bold in the uncivil war,
And, free of E.P.T. and Party Truce,
Monopolize the market in abuse.

Your craven fathers tried with all their might
To spare your generation from the fight.
But you're so fierce. You could not go to war:
But you'd have sent your brothers years before.

You would have fought in '37 or '8,
In '5 or '6, or any other date.
It is a source of merriment to me—
The battling publicists are all €3.

Write on, brave lad, and, while you may, attack
An enemy who must not answer back.
Those you assail will answer in the end,
And those you serve cry, 'Save me from my friend'
April 22, 1945