The Ungirt Runner

I first heard the poem, the Song of the Ungirt Runners, a few years ago.

I memorized it, and I sometimes use it as a mantra when I’m running and I feel like quitting. It gets me over the hills.

I love the precision of the words and I admire the fact that it was written by Charles Hamilton Sorley when he was only twenty years old. When I finish reciting the poem there is a moment of sadness when I remember that Sorley was killed in action in World War I and never wrote or ran again.