Everyone and his brother is better at Googling than I am.

I was putting in the whole “line,” as I remembered it. Actually, the text I

gave is broken across two lines, and this accounts for the no-hit on Google

(I suppose).

A Google on “+softly +centuries +fall +civilized” does the trick. The poem

is “Raiders’ Dawn” by the Welsh WW2 soldier-poet Alun Lewis.

Here is the poem.

Here is some bio on Lewis.

Many thanks to all who helped.

Be nice to think that the old soldier-poet tradition is still alive, and

that some of our fighting guys in Iraq and Afghanistan are putting their

thoughts into verse.