George Rostrevor Hamilton

To Fighter Airmen

We, when our praise would celebrate your merit,
We, following on the faint
And dizzy circuit of your gyring spirit,
Add to our praise complaint –

That War, with you consorting, should recover
Thereby the false, the fair
Front we had late stripped off, the Dangerous Lover,
Romantic, debonair;

Till we, enamored of his shining pinion
Sheer over storm and swell,
Forget what rank is his, and what dominion,
A dark-winged prince in Hell.