What Poem Did You Read When You Were On Deployment That Really Hit Home??

Sgt Tom Cunnally — Sat, 17 Oct 2015 06:24:30 -0400

At Boston College, a poem Fr. Heath wrote as an undergraduate in the early 1940s has become a treasured part of campus lore. The poem, "Proud Refrain," written for the BC literary magazine The Stylus, poignantly captured the sentiments of many a young BC man heading off to the Second World War:

What are you dreaming, soldier,

What is it you see?

A tall gray Gothic tower,

And a linden tree.

You speak so sadly, soldier,

Sad and wistfully . . .

I cannot hear the tower bell

In the swirling sea.

What meaning has it, soldier,

A tower, bell, and tree?

Nothing, nothing - only once

It meant my life to me.

Interviewed in 1991 by Boston College Magazine, Fr. Heath recalled that he had written the poem on the kitchen table of his Somerville home. "I don't think any one event inspired it; it overflowed from my love for BC and for my classmates, some of whom had already been called up, and most of whom soon would be.

"No, I was not on a troop ship or on an island in the Pacific or on my way to the European

Response by Sgt Tom Cunnally made Oct 17 at 2015 6:30 AM

Sgt Tom Cunnally — Sat, 17 Oct 2015 06:30:15 -0400

I read this poem that was in the Boston Globe and mailed to me by my Mom... It knocked by socks off and I immediately told my Plt Commander that I would like to return to BC. I dropped out 3 years earlier because I didn't get a hockey scholarship & was passed off... But the Marines said it was unlikely that BC would take anyone back who quit but they would try but I had to be transferred from active to reserve status depending if their were open slots for my MOS (2536) in the 1st Naval Reserve District in Boston MA ... On 09/27/1956 I returned to BC as a freshman and started over again.