s: And the world goes forward with France--with France?


s: While the legions stream--a line of light,


s: And men fall to the left and fall to the right,


s: _Qui vive?_ Who comes? What approaches there?


s: What soundless tumult, what breath in the air


s: Takes the breath in the throat, the blood from the heart?


s: Without glint of barrel or bayonets' glance,


s: They approach--they come. _Who_ comes? (Hush! Hark!)


s: Let the proud tears fall but the heart beat high:


s: On its endless march in the endless Plan:


s: There shall she keep her fearless state,


s: Your feet and bind your wounds on bended knee.


s: Though coward hands have nailed you to the tree


s: And shed your innocent blood and dug your grave,


s: Rejoice and live! Your oriflamme shall wave--


s: While man has power to perish and be free--


s: Proud as the dawn and as the sunset brave.


s: Belgium, where dwelleth reverence for right


s: Enthroned above all ideals; where your fate


s: And your supernal patience and your might


s: You shine a star above this stormy night


s: And Love no language save a long Farewell!


s: When Justice at the last demands her Day.


s: Low and brown barns, thatched and repatched and tattered,


s: A little hill of hay your spur has scattered....


s: This is not Paris. You have lost the way.


s: You, staring at your sword to find it brittle,


s: Surprised at the surprise that was your plan,


s: Who, shaking and breaking barriers not a little,


s: Find never more the death-door of Sedan--


s: Must I for more than carnage call you claimant,


s: Paying you a penny for each son you slay?


s: Man, the whole globe in gold were no repayment


s: For what _you_ have lost. And how shall I repay?


s: What is the price of that red spark that caught me


s: What is the price of that dead man they brought me?


s: For other dead men do not look the same.


s: How should I pay for one poor graven steeple


s: Whereon you shattered what you shall not know?


s: How should I pay you everything you owe?


s: Unhappy, can I give you back your honour?


s: While all the great green land has trampled on her


s: The treason and terror of the night we met.


s: An old wife bargains for a bean that's hers.


s: You have no word to break: no heart to harden.


s: Ride on and prosper. You have lost your spurs.


s: The chains now rust that crushed men's flesh and bones,


s: Feet tread no more the mildewed prison stones,


s: Of darkened Russia, watching long in vain,


s: Now shall you see the cloud of Russia's pain


s: Decked out with dreadful sceptre, steel, and stole,


s: A wind in the world! And doubts are blown


s: To dust along, and the old stars come forth--


s: Stars of a creed to Pilgrim Fathers worth


s: A field of broken spears and flowers strown.


s: From the true self is ended; to her part


s: Steadfast again she moves, and from her heart


s: A great America cries: Death to Tyranny!


s: Vision doth move at last, and Freedom stands


s: With brightened wings, and smiles and beckons home!


s: Land of the Martyrs--of the martyred dead


s: Long wert thou saddest of the nations, wed


s: Not yet relentless History had writ of Teuton shame.


s: Thou knewest all the gloom of hope deferred.


s: 'Twixt God and Russia wrong had built such bar


s: Each by the other could no more be heard.


s: Seen through the cloud, the child's familiar star,


s: That once made Heaven near, had made it seem more far.


s: Land of the Breaking Dawn! No more look back


s: To that long night that nevermore can be:


s: The sunless dungeon and the exile's track.


s: To the world's dreams of terror let it flee.


s: To gentle April cruel March is now antiquity.


s: That boundary-post 'twixt Russia and Despair,--


s: Set where the dead might look upon his grave,--


s: Kissed by him with his last-breathed Russian air.


s: Keep it to witness to the world what heroes still may dare.


s: Land of New Hope, no more the minor key,


s: No more the songs of exile long and lone;


s: Thy tears henceforth be tears of memory.


s: Sing, with the joy the joyless would have known


s: Who for this visioned happiness so gladly gave their own.


s: Land of the warm heart and the friendly hand,


s: Strike the free chord; no more the muted strings!


s: A thousand winters for this Spring of Springs,


s: That to a warring world, through thee, millennial longing brings.


s: On thy white tablets, cleansed of royal stain,


s: What message to the future mayst thou write!--


s: The People's Law, the bulwark of their reign,


s: And Brotherhood, that can alone lead to the loftiest height.


s: Take, then, our hearts' rejoicing overflow,


s: Whose coming sets the expectant earth aglow.


s: Soon the glad skies thy proud new flag shall see,


s: And hear thy chanted hymns of hope for Russia new and free.


s: "I will die cheering, if I needs must die;


s: So shall my last breath write upon my lips


s: Down the great darkness from the mountain sky;


s: And those who shall behold me where I lie


s: Shall murmur: 'Look, you! how his spirit dips


s: Of death is vanquished! Lo, his victor-cry!'


s: Let thy dear light from my dead body shine


s: '_Ecco!_ though heaven has made my skies divine,


s: My sons' love sanctifies my soil for aye!'"


s: By all the deeds to Thy dear glory done,


s: By all the life blood, spilt to serve Thy need,


s: By all the fettered lives Thy touch hath freed,


s: Hath given of highest vision, kingliest deed,


s: For trial and strength, our fate with Thine is one.


s: Still dwells Thy spirit in our hearts and lips,


s: Honour and life we hold from none but Thee,


s: But seek a nation's might of men and ships,


s: 'T is but that when the world is black with war


s: Thy sons may stand beside Thee strong and free.


s: Great names of thy great captains gone before


s: Beat with our blood, who have that blood of thee:


s: Raleigh and Grenville, Wolfe, and all the free


s: Fine souls who dared to front a world in war.


s: Such only may outreach the envious years


s: Where feebler crowns and fainter stars remove,


s: Nurtured in one remembrance and one love


s: Too high for passion and too stern for tears.


s: O little isle our fathers held for home,


s: Not, not alone thy standards and thy hosts


s: Lead where thy sons shall follow, Mother Land:


s: Quick as the north wind, ardent as the foam,


s: Of all past greatnesses about thee stand.


s: Of the vast Hun horde, and Canada's part


s: It was April fair on the Flanders Fields,


s: That ever the years, in their fateful flight,


s: With fort on fort, and iron-ringed trench,


s: And south and west, like a serpent of fire,


s: And the stench of blood, and the trampled mud,


s: And far to the eastward, harnessed and taut,


s: When out of the grim Hun lines one night,


s: A strange, weird cloud, like a pale, green shroud,


s: Of poisonous fumes that scorched the night


s: Till even the little dark men of the south,


s: Those fierce, wild fighters of Afric's steppes,


s: For they knew 't was no human foe that slew;


s: Then red in the reek of that evil cloud,


s: And the murderer's dirk did its monster work,


s: Till it seemed that at last the brute Hun hordes


s: And sweep to the south in ravaging might,


s: These were the men out there that night,


s: While some went under and some went mad;


s: For the word was "Canada," theirs to fight,


s: Britain said, fight, and fight they would,


s: Though the Devil himself in sulphurous mood


s: Yea, stubborn, they stood, that hero band,


s: Where mother and sister and love would weep


s: But never a thought but to do their part,


s: Ringed round, hemmed in, and back to back,


s: Wonderful battles have shaken this world,


s: Wonderful struggles of right against wrong,


s: Sung in the rhymes of the world's great song,


s: Of the vast Hun horde, and Canada's part


s: With arrows on their quarters and with numbers on their hoofs,


s: With the trampling sound of twenty that re-echoes in the roofs,


s: Low of crest and dull of coat, wan and wild of eye,


s: Through our English village the Canadians go by.


s: Shying at a passing cart, swerving from a car,


s: Tossing up an anxious head to flaunt a snowy star,


s: Racking at a Yankee gait, reaching at the rein,


s: Twenty raw Canadians are tasting life again!


s: Hollow-necked and hollow-flanked, lean of rib and hip,


s: Strained and sick and weary with the wallow of the ship,


s: Glad to smell the turf again, hear the robin's call,


s: Tread again the country road they lost at Montreal!


s: Fate may bring them dule and woe; better steeds than they


s: Sleep beside the English guns a hundred leagues away;


s: But till war hath need of them, lightly lie their reins,


s: Softly fall the feet of them along the English lanes.


s: He said: "Thou petty people, let me pass.


s: What canst thou do but bow to me and kneel?"


s: But sudden a dry land caught fire like grass,


s: And answer hurtled but from shell and steel.


s: He looked for silence, but a thunder came


s: All Belgium flew up at his throat in flame


s: Till at her gates amazed his legions quail.


s: Take heed, for now on haunted ground they tread;


s: There bowed a mightier war lord to his fall:


s: Fear! lest that very green grass again grow red


s: With blood of German now as then with Gaul.


s: If him whom God destroys He maddens first,


s: Then thy destruction slake thy madman's thirst.


s: Now spake the Emperor to all his shining battle forces,


s: To the lovely woman, Paris, that has driven me to dream!"


s: And they stormed up to the cannon's mouth and withered there, and


s: And the tranquil moon came riding on the heaven's silver ford.


s: (Men must die when Kings are dreaming!)--


s: And her light fell down before her like a Cross upon the plain!


s: To the barriers of the thunder and the fury of the flame!


s: But the forts still stood.... Their breath


s: But a hush breathes out of the dream-light


s: Three hundred thousand men, but not enough


s: To break this township on a winding stream;


s: More yet must fall, and more, ere the red stuff


s: That built a nation's manhood may redeem


s: The Master's hopes and realize his dream.


s: They pave the way to Verdun; on their dust


s: The Hohenzollerns mount and, hand in hand,


s: Gaze haggard south; for yet another thrust


s: And higher hills must heap, ere they may stand


s: To feed their eyes upon the promised land.


s: One barrow, borne of women, lifts them high,


s: Nursed on their mothers' bosoms, now they lie--


s: A Golgotha, all shattered, torn and sped,


s: A mountain for these royal feet to tread.


s: Shall heave two crosses; crucify and flay


s: Of world-wide execration give them room.


s: Thank-offering and bend the reverent knee,


s: Playing a greater game, they'll stick it,


s: Frightening the rooks from the tallest trees,


s: But to-day she stands in her ancient pride


s: Gone are her sons: yet her heart is glad


s: For she brought them forth to live or die


s: Heard ye the trumpet sound? "The Day! the Day!


s: The last that shall on England's Empire shine!


s: The Parliament that broke the Right Divine


s: Shall see her realm of reason swept away,


s: And lesser nations shall the sword obey--


s: The sword o'er all carve the great world's design!"


s: So on the English Channel boasts the foe


s: On whose imperial brow death's helmet nods.


s: Look where his hosts o'er bloody Belgium go,


s: And mix a nation's past with blazing sods!


s: A kingdom's waste! a people's homeless woe!


s: Far fall the day when England's realm shall see


s: And frames the brotherhood on earth to be!


s: She, in free peoples planting sovereignty,


s: Orbs half the civil world in British peace;


s: And though time dispossess her, and she cease,


s: Oh, many a crown shall sink in war's turmoil,


s: Fleets sweep the ocean, nations till the soil,


s: Ere such a mighty work man rears on high!


s: Hearken, the feet of the Destroyer tread


s: The wine-press of the nations; fast the blood


s: Pours from the side of Europe; in the flood


s: The rivers of fair France are running red!


s: Shakes in the blast: heaven battles overhead!


s: Lift up thy head, O Rheims, of ages heir


s: That treasured up in thee their glorious sum;


s: Flamed the great morrow of the world to come;


s: Ere yet thou close, O Flower of Christendom!


s: Sweeps on the earth, and spreads a spectral air,


s: Unwonted gloom, and on the Atlantic slips;


s: So in the night the Belgian cities flare


s: Along the roads, and load the fleeing ships.


s: Darkening o'er England and her times to be,


s: Watch well, my country, that unearthly sea,


s: Lest when thou thinkest not, and in thy sleep,


s: Unapt for war, that gloom enshadow thee.


s: I pray for peace; yet peace is but a prayer.


s: How many wars have been in my brief years!


s: All races and all faiths, both hemispheres,


s: The wide earth through; yet do I not despair


s: Of peace, that slowly through far ages nears;


s: Though not to me the golden morn appears,


s: My faith is perfect in time's issue fair.


s: And his ideals are framed of hope deferred;


s: The millennium came not; yet Christ did not fail,


s: Him Prince of Peace, though unenthroned, we hail,


s: This is my faith, and my mind's heritage,


s: Wherein I toil, though in a lonely place,


s: Who yet world-wide survey the human race


s: Body and soul, and life's old strife assuage;


s: Still must abide, till heaven perfect its grace,


s: And love grown wisdom sweeten in man's face,


s: Alike the Christian and the heathen rage.


s: That in the soul shall its foundations find


s: Patient the heart must be, humble the mind,


s: That doth the greater births of time await!


s: Whence not unmoved I see the nations form


s: From Dover to the fountains of the Rhine,


s: A hundred leagues, the scarlet battle-line,


s: A vaster flood; rather my breast grows warm,


s: Under one standard, with one countersign,


s: And never through the wide world yet there rang


s: A mightier summons! O Thou who from the side


s: Of Athens and the loins of Casar sprang,


s: Strike, Europe, with half the coming world allied


s: For those ideals for which, since Homer sang,


s: The hosts of thirty centuries have died.


s: May hide the lightning, and their grave.


s: The searchlights move, from shore to shore.


s: And "Search in thine own soul," they cry;


s: Our compass through the world's wide sea.


s: Once more, redeemed and healed and whole,


s: Now is the midnight of the nations: dark


s: Even as death, beside her blood-dark seas,


s: Screams in her travail, and the planets hark


s: Her million-throated terror. Naked, stark,


s: Her torso writhes enormous, and her knees


s: Christ! What shall be delivered to the morn


s: Out of these pangs, if ever indeed another


s: Morn shall succeed this night, or this vast mother


s: Survive to know the blood-spent offspring, torn


s: From her racked flesh?--What splendour from the smother?


s: What new-wing'd world, or mangled god still-born?


s: We willed it not. We have not lived in hate,


s: Loving too well the shires of England thrown


s: Or wish one flight of fortune from your throne.


s: We had grown proud because the nations stood


s: That, tortured of its old barbarian blood,


s: Barbarian still the heart of man should be.


s: Builders there are who name you overlord,


s: Who hold as we this chartered sin abhorred,


s: Beethoven speaks with Milton on this day,


s: And Shakespeare's word with Goethe's beats the sky,


s: In witness of the birthright you betray,


s: We love the hearth, the quiet hills, the song,


s: The friendly gossip come from every land;


s: And very peace were now a nameless wrong--


s: You thrust this bitter quarrel to our hand.


s: For this your pride the tragic armies go,


s: And the grim navies watch along the seas;


s: You trade in death, you mock at life, you throw


s: You rob us of our love-right. It is said.


s: In treason to the world, you are enthroned,


s: We rise, and, by the yet ungathered dead,


s: Not lightly shall the treason be atoned.


s: Now slowly sinks the day-long labouring Sun


s: Behind the tranquil trees and old church-tower;


s: And we who watch him know our day is done;


s: For us too comes the evening--and the hour.


s: The sunbeams slanting through those ancient trees,


s: The lark descending, and the homing bees,


s: Proclaim the sweet relief all things desire.


s: Golden the river brims beneath the west,


s: And holy peace to all the world is given;


s: The songless stockdove preens her ruddied breast;


s: The blue smoke windeth like a prayer to heaven.


s: O old, old England, land of golden peace,


s: Thy fields are spun with gossameres of gold,


s: And plenty crowns thy loveliness untold.


s: The still star victory ever gems thy brow;


s: Age cannot age thee, ages make thee old.


s: Thy beauty brightens with the evening sun


s: Across the long-lit meads and distant spire:


s: So sleep thou well--like his thy labour done;


s: A gentle sadness chides us like a friend--


s: And in the twilight voices wailing past,


s: Like wild-swans calling, "When we rest we die,


s: And woe to them that linger and are last";


s: And as the Sun sinks, sudden in heav'n new born


s: There shines an armed Angel like a Star,


s: Who cries above the darkling world in scorn,


s: "God comes to Judgment. Learn ye what ye are."


s: From fire to umber fades the sunset-gold,


s: The infant flowers their orisons have told


s: The garden urns are black against the eve;


s: The white moth flitters through the fragrant glooms;


s: How beautiful the heav'ns!--But yet we grieve


s: And wander restless from the lighted rooms.


s: For through the world to-night a murmur thrills


s: Peace dies like twilight bleeding on the hills,


s: And Darkness creeps to hide the hateful crime.


s: O Peace, bright Angel of the windless morn?


s: Who comest down to bless our furrow'd fields,


s: Or stand like Beauty smiling 'mid the corn:


s: Mistress of mirth and ease and summer dreams,


s: Who lingerest among the woods and streams


s: To help us heap the harvest 'neath the moon,


s: And homeward laughing lead the lumb'ring teams:


s: Who teachest to our children thy wise lore;


s: Who keepest full the goodman's golden store;


s: Who crownest Life with plenty, Death with flow'rs;


s: Peace, Queen of Kindness--but of earth, no more.


s: Not thine but ours the fault, thy care was vain;


s: For this that we have done be ours the pain;


s: Thou gayest much, as He who gave us all,


s: And as we slew Him for it thou art slain.


s: Heav'n left to men the moulding of their fate:


s: To live as wolves or pile the pillar'd State--


s: Like boars and bears to grunt and growl in mire,


s: Thou liftedst us: we slew and with thee fell--


s: From golden thrones of wisdom weeping fell.


s: Fate rends the chaplets from our feeble brows;


s: The spires of Heaven fade in fogs of hell.


s: She faints, she falls; her dying eyes are dim;


s: Her fingers play with those bright buds she bore


s: To please us, but that she can bring no more;


s: And dying yet she smiles--as Christ on him


s: Who slew Him slain. Her eyes so beauteous


s: Are lit with tears shed--not for herself but us.


s: The gentle Beings of the hearth and home;


s: Where she dwelleth; and joyous Spirits that roam


s: To bless her bleating flocks and fruitful lands;


s: Are gather'd there to weep, and kiss her dying hands.


s: "Look, look," they cry, "she is not dead, she breathes!


s: And we have staunched the damned wound and deep,


s: The cavern-carven wound. She doth but sleep


s: And will awake. Bring wine, and new-wound wreaths


s: Wherewith to crown awaking her dear head,


s: And make her Queen again."--But no, for Peace was dead.


s: And then there came black Lords; and Dwarfs obscene


s: With lavish tongues; and Trolls; and treacherous Things


s: Like loose-lipp'd Councillors and cruel Kings


s: Who sharpen lies and daggers subterrene:


s: And flashed their evil eyes and weeping cried,


s: "We ruled the world for Peace. By her own hand she died."


s: In secret he made sharp the bitter blade,


s: And poison'd it with bane of lies and drew,


s: And stabb'd--O God! the Cruel Cripple slew;


s: And cowards fled or lent him trembling aid,


s: She fell and died--in all the tale of time


s: The direst deed e'er done, the most accursed crime.


s: And I sit all day on the deck, and long--


s: Searched by the fire, through death and dole


s: Brain, sinew, and spirit, before we die.


s: From out their shade of leaf and flower,


s: Thou silly thing, off to thy daisies go.


s: And Death--no ears hath. He hath supped where creep


s: Faintly their thin bones rattle, and.... There, there;


s: Before I knew, the Dawn was on the road,


s: To touch with light my sleeve and make the way


s: Had looked on it. Strange was this radiant Youth,


s: As I, to these fair, fertile parts of France,


s: Where Caesar with his legions once had passed,


s: And where the Kaiser's Uhlans yet would pass


s: Or e'er another moon should cope with clouds


s: For mastery of these same fields.--To-night


s: (And but a month has gone since I walked there)


s: Well might the Kaiser write, as Caesar wrote,


s: In his new Commentaries on a Gallic war,


s: Who would have then divined that dead would lie


s: Like swaths of grain beneath the harvest moon


s: Upon these lands the ancient Belgae held,


s: But it was out of that dread August night


s: From which all Europe woke to war, that we,


s: This beautiful Dawn-Youth, and I, had come,


s: He'd waked the moujik from his peaceful dreams,


s: Where minarets rise o'er the Golden Horn,


s: And driven shadows from the Prussian march


s: To lie beneath the lindens of the _stadt_.


s: Softly he'd stirred the bells to ring at Rheims,


s: He'd knocked at high Montmartre, hardly asleep;


s: Heard the sweet carillon of doomed Louvain,


s: Boylike, had tarried for a moment's play


s: And then was hast'ning on the road to Dieppe,


s: When he o'ertook me drowsy from the hours


s: Through which I'd walked, with no companions else


s: Often, in doubt, I'd paused to question one,


s: With nervous hands, as they who read Moon-type;


s: And more than once I'd caught a moment's sleep


s: Beside the highway, in the dripping grass,


s: While one of these white sentinels stood guard,


s: Knowing me for a friend, who loves the road,


s: And best of all by night, when wheels do sleep


s: And stars alone do walk abroad.--But once


s: Three watchful shadows, deeper than the dark,


s: Laid hands on me and searched me for the marks


s: With wish for _bon voyage_ they gave me o'er


s: To the white guards who led me on again.


s: Thus Dawn o'ertook me and with magic speech


s: Made me forget the night as we strode on.


s: Where'er he looked a miracle was wrought:


s: A tree grew from the darkness at a glance;


s: A hut was thatched; a new chateau was reared


s: Of stone, as weathered as the church at Caen;


s: Gray blooms were coloured suddenly in red;


s: A flag was flung across the eastern sky.--


s: Cradling and gleaning by the first scant light,


s: Their sons and husbands somewhere o'er the edge


s: Of these green-golden fields which they had sowed,


s: But will not reap,--out somewhere on the march,


s: God but knows where and if they come again.


s: Where but the day before a peasant ploughed,


s: Dreaming of next year's fruit, and there his plough


s: Stood now mid-field, his horses commandeered,


s: A monstrous sable crow perched on the beam.


s: Before I knew, the Dawn was on the road,


s: And hast'ning on along the dun straight way,


s: Where old men's sabots now began to clack


s: And withered women, knitting, led their cows,


s: Down to their coasts,--I shouting after him:


s: "O Dawn, would you had let the world sleep on


s: Till all its armament were turned to rust,


s: Nor waked it to this day of hideous hate,


s: Of man's red murder and of woman's woe!"


s: Famished and lame, I came at last to Dieppe,


s: But Dawn had made his way across the sea,


s: And, as I climbed with heavy feet the cliff,


s: Of that great capital where nations all,


s: Forget long hates in one consummate faith.


s: Nor dreamt that, ere the year was spent,


s: Shall we still strive for gear and store?


s: That all base dreams thrust out at door,


s: _The fool hath said.... The fool hath said...._


s: How should we kneel, in this dread hour?


s: With a chivalrous sense of should and ought,


s: Let us fight fair--for our own best or worst;


s: Knowing that practise perfidy no man durst


s: Rules now! Let us, by modes once called accurst,


s: Crime from which the apes would shrink--


s: _To Whom, whichever way the combat rolls,


s: We, fighting to the end, commend our souls._


s: The horror-haunted Belgian plains riven by shot and shell


s: Are strewn with her undaunted sons who stayed the jaws of hell.


s: In every sunny vale of France death is the countersign.


s: The purest blood in Britain's veins is being poured like wine.


s: Far, far across the crimsoned map the impassioned armies sweep.


s: Destruction flashes down the sky and penetrates the deep.


s: The Dreadnought knows the silent dread, and seas incarnadine


s: Attest the carnival of strife, the madman's battle scene.


s: Relentless, savage, hot, and grim the infuriate columns press


s: Where terror simulates disdain and danger is largess,


s: Where greedy youth claims death for bride and agony seems bliss.


s: It is the cause, the cause, my soul! which sanctifies all this.


s: The Superman has burst his bonds. With Kultur-flag unfurled


s: And prayer on lip he runs amuck, imperilling the world.


s: The impious creed that might is right in him personified


s: Bids all creation bend before the insatiate Teuton pride,


s: Which, nourished on Valhalla dreams of empire unconfined,


s: Would make the cannon and the sword the despots of mankind.


s: Efficient, thorough, strong, and brave--his vision is to kill.


s: Force is the hearthstone of his might, the pole-star of his will.


s: To deck the goddess of his lust whose twins are blood and fire.


s: O world grown sick with butchery and manifold distress!


s: O broken Belgium robbed of all save grief and ghastliness!


s: Should Prussian power enslave the world and arrogance prevail,


s: Let chaos come, let Moloch rule, and Christ give place to Baal.


s: I heard the rumbling guns. I saw the smoke,


s: The unintelligible shock of hosts that still,


s: Far off, unseeing, strove and strove again;


s: From morn to eve: and the stern night cried Peace!


s: And shut the strife in darkness: all was still,


s: Then slowly crept a triumph on the dark--


s: Then I went out and walked to the square


s: And saw a few dazed people standing there.


s: And then the drums beat, the drums beat!


s: And hurrying, stumbling through the street


s: I have heard the roll and thunder of the nearest drum


s: As the drummer stopped and cried, "Hear!


s: And there was calm in my heart of the desert, of the dead sea,


s: Of vast plains of the West before the coming storm,


s: And the drummer marched through the street


s: Huddled, we stood and heard the drums roll,


s: I have heard the tolling cathedral bell.


s: I have seen the drummer striding from street to street,


s: Crying, "Be strong! Hear what I must tell!"


s: While the drums roared and rolled and beat


s: Last night the men of this region were leaving. Now they are far.


s: The train was full and we all shouted as it pulled away.


s: Except for the weeping of the ruddy old women of Finistère.


s: The younger women do not weep. They dream and stare.


s: They seem to be walking in dreams. They seem not to know


s: It is their homes, their happiness, vanishing so.


s: (Every strong man between twenty and forty must go.)


s: They sang an old war-song. I have heard it often in other days,


s: But never before when War was walking the world's highways.


s: They sang, they shouted, the _Marseillaise!_


s: We are not sure that the great battalions have stirred--


s: Except for something, something in the air,


s: Except for the weeping of the wild old women of Finistère.


s: How long will the others dream and stare?


s: The train went. The strong men of this region are all away, afar.


s: Dreary lay the long road, dreary lay the town,


s: Weary lay the stragglers, half a thousand down,


s: "Oh! if I'd a drum here to make them take the road again,


s: Oh! if I'd a fife to wheedle, Come, boys, come!


s: You that mean to fight it out, wake and take your load again,


s: Fall in! Fall in! Follow the fife and drum!


s: "Hey, but here's a toy shop, here's a drum for me,


s: Half a thousand dead men soon shall hear and see


s: We're a band!" said the weary big Dragoon.


s: "Rubadub! Rubadub! Wake and take the road again,


s: Wheedle-deedle-deedle-dee, Come, boys, come!


s: Fall in! Fall in! Follow the fife and drum!"


s: Cheerly goes the dark road, cheerly goes the night,


s: Cheerly goes the blood to keep the beat:


s: Half a thousand dead men marching on to fight


s: With a little penny drum to lift their feet.


s: Rubadub! Rubadub! Wake and take the road again,


s: As long as there's an Englishman to ask a tale of me,


s: We'll not forget the penny whistle's wheedle-deedle-dee


s: And the big Dragoon a-beating down the night,


s: Projectile which he calls a "Black Maria."


s: Do not include "The Watch upon the Thames."


s: Nor play what isn't cricket. There's his creed.


s: And I heard some one cry, "Clear the front for the Guards!"


s: But I'll tell 'em in Blighty, wherever I be,


s: What was it kept you so long, brave German submersible?


s: We have been very anxious lest matters had not gone well


s: With you and the precious cargo of your country's drugs and dyes.


s: Glad to welcome you up and out of the caves of the sea,


s: And ready for sale or barter, whatever your will may be.


s: Oh, do not be impatient, good friends of this neutral land,


s: We were stopped by a curious chance just off the Irish coast,


s: Where the mightiest wreck ever was lay crowded with a host


s: That they might be at home with their brothers and sisters dear.


s: We Germans have tender hearts, and it grieved us sore to say


s: We were not a passenger ship, and to most we must answer nay,


s: Come, come, get down to business! For time is money, you know,


s: And you must make up in both to us for having been so slow.


s: Better tell this story of yours to the submarines, for we


s: Oh, kind kin of our murderers, take us back when you sail away;


s: Our own kin have forgotten us. O Captain, do not stay!


s: But hasten, Captain, hasten: The wreck that lies under the sea


s: Shall be ever the home for us this land can never be.


s: She was binding the wounds of her enemies when they came--


s: They battered the door with their rifle-butts, crashed it in:


s: They haled her before the judges where they sat


s: With question and menace the judges assailed her, "Yes,


s: "I have tended the hurt and hidden the hunted, have done


s: Because of a law that is greater than that you have made,


s: "Deal as you will with me. This is my choice to the end,


s: "She is self-confessed," they cried; "she is self-condemned.


s: She shall die, that the rest may be cowed."


s: In the terrible hour of the dawn, when the veins are cold,


s: "I have loved my land," she said, "but it is not enough:


s: "I will empty my heart of the bitterness, hating none."


s: With a vision of understanding beyond the hour


s: They bound her eyes, but she stood as if she shone.


s: When the hoarse command rang out. They could not endure


s: And the officer strode and pistolled her surely, ashamed


s: Should quail at a woman, only a woman,--


s: And now that the deed was securely done, in the night


s: They answered those that had striven for her, day by day:


s: And with many words and sorrowful-phrased excuse


s: To kill, most legally; hard though the duty be,


s: To the gods of fear that they worship. Leave them there,


s: She bewailed not herself, and we will bewail her not,


s: That an English soul was found so crystal-clear


s: Of the human heart that dares adventure all


s: And beyond all laws sees love as the light in the night,


s: The hurts she healed, the thousands comforted--these


s: But because she stept to her star right on through death


s: A trifle, indeed, I assure you, to give for the honor to tell


s: (Only those who have danced to its music can know what the


s: A party was chosen--and seven survived till the powder was laid.


s: They linger, Gaul and Briton, side by side:


s: Death they know well, for daily have they died,


s: They wait: here is no priest or chorister,


s: Birds skirt the stricken tower, terrified;


s: Yet still they wait, watching the Babe and Her.


s: Broken, the Mother stoops: the brutish foe


s: Hurled with dull hate his bolts, and down She swayed,


s: Down, till She saw the toiling swarms below,--


s: Platoons, guns, transports, endlessly arrayed:


s: "Women are woe for them! let Me be theirs,


s: And comfort them, and hearken all their prayers!"


s: Across the stifling leagues of southern plain,


s: Across the scorching leagues of trampled grain,


s: Half-stunned, half-blinded, by the trudge of feet


s: He dreamt of flowers in an English lane,


s: Of hedgerow flowers glistening after rain--


s: All-heal and willow-herb and meadow-sweet.


s: All-heal and willow-herb and meadow-sweet--


s: The innocent names kept up a cool refrain--


s: All-heal and willow-herb and meadow-sweet,


s: Chiming and tinkling in his aching brain,


s: "All-heal and willow-herb and meadow-sweet."


s: From the top of a haystack--such a lovely morning--


s: I saw across a field in the broad sunlight


s: A young Gunner Subaltern, stalking along


s: With a rook-rifle held at the ready, and--would you believe it?--


s: So I laughed, and felt quite well disposed to the youngster,


s: And shouted out "the top of the morning" to him,


s: And wished him "Good sport!"--and then I remembered


s: My rank, and his, and what I ought to be doing:


s: And I rode nearer, and added, "I can only suppose


s: You have not seen the Commander-in-Chief's order


s: Forbidding English officers to annoy their Allies


s: And said earnestly, "I beg your pardon, Sir,


s: The lovely early morning, the occasional shell


s: Screeching and scattering past us, the empty landscape,--


s: Empty, except for the young Gunner saluting,


s: And the cat, anxiously watching his every movement.


s: I may be wrong, and I may have told it badly,


s: But it struck _me_ as being extremely ludicrous.


s: And poured them molten from thy tragic towers:


s: Now are the windows dust that were thy flower


s: Patterned like frost, petalled like asphodels.


s: The saints, the little lamb above thy door,


s: The shepherd Christ! They are not, any more,


s: Save in the soul where exiled beauty dwells.


s: But who has heard within thy vaulted gloom


s: When music flows along the sculptured stone


s: In tides of prayer, for him thy windows bloom


s: Thy bells live on, and Heaven is in their tone!


s: When Spring comes back with rustling shade


s: When Spring brings back blue days and fair.


s: And close my eyes and quench my breath--


s: Pulse nigh to pulse, and breath to breath,


s: When Spring trips north again this year,


s: That there's some corner of a foreign field


s: That is for ever England. There shall be


s: In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;


s: A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,


s: Gave once her flowers to love, her ways to roam,


s: A body of England's, breathing English air,


s: Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.


s: And think this heart, all evil shed away,


s: Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;


s: Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;


s: And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,


s: In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.


s: Unlatched and lit, if Thou should'st care


s: Here lies a clerk who half his life had spent


s: Thinking that so his days would drift away


s: With no lance broken in life's tournament:


s: Yet ever 'twixt the books and his bright eyes


s: The gleaming eagles of the legions came,


s: And horsemen, charging under phantom skies,


s: Went thundering past beneath the oriflamme.


s: And now those waiting dreams are satisfied;


s: From twilight to the halls of dawn he went;


s: His lance is broken; but he lies content


s: With that high hour, in which he lived and died.


s: And falling thus he wants no recompense,


s: Who found his battle in the last resort;


s: Nor needs he any hearse to bear him hence,


s: Take warmth, and life from the glowing earth;


s: The blackbird sings to him, "Brother, brother,


s: If this be the last song you shall sing,


s: Sing well, for you may not sing another;


s: Through joy and blindness he shall know,


s: But Day shall clasp him with strong hands,


s: First at those red-mouthed hounds of hell,


s: Shell-hole to shell-hole, trench, to trench,


s: And other hearts than ours would thrill;


s: To taste the fresh of the morning air;--


s: You can see them clearly on either hand,


s: Or a furrow of brown where the earthworks run


s: From the eastern hills to the western sea,


s: Through field or forest o'er river and lea;


s: And Death rides across on the bullet or shell.


s: When patrols crawl over at dead o' night;


s: You dice with death when you cross the trench.


s: When the "rapid," like fireflies in the dark,


s: And you drop for cover to keep your head


s: With your face on the breast of the four months'


s: When the star-shell's flare, as it bursts o'erhead,


s: Scares the gray rats that feed on the dead,


s: And the bursting bomb or the bayonet-snatch


s: May answer the click of your safety-catch,


s: For the lone patrol, with his life in his hand,


s: When cheeks are flushed, and glasses gilt and pearled


s: With the sweet wine of France that concentrates


s: The sunshine and the beauty of the world,


s: Drink sometimes, you whose footsteps yet may tread


s: The undisturbed, delightful paths of Earth,


s: To those whose blood, in pious duty shed,


s: Hallows the soil where that same wine had birth.


s: Along our lines they slumber where they fell,


s: And up the bloody slopes of La Pompelle,


s: And round the city whose cathedral towers


s: That clothe the sunny chalk-fields of Champagne,


s: Under the little crosses where they rise


s: The soldier rests. Now round him undismayed


s: The cannon thunders, and at night he lies


s: At peace beneath the eternal fusillade....


s: From shame and menace free in years to come--


s: Than undishonored that his flag might float


s: His breast the bulwark and his blood the moat.


s: Obscurely sacrificed, his nameless tomb,


s: Bare of the sculptor's art, the poet's lines,


s: Summer shall flush with poppy-fields in bloom,


s: There the grape-pickers at their harvesting


s: Shall lightly tread and load their wicker trays,


s: Blessing his memory as they toil and sing


s: In the slant sunshine of October days....


s: I love to think that if my blood should be


s: So privileged to sink where his has sunk,


s: But when the banquet rings, when healths are drunk,


s: Glow radiant with laughter and good cheer,


s: In beaming cups some spark of me shall still


s: Brim toward the lips that once I held so dear.


s: Than nature clothes in color and flesh and tone,


s: Even from the grave put upward to attain


s: The dreams youth cherished and missed and might have known;


s: And that strong need that strove unsatisfied


s: Toward earthly beauty in all forms it wore,


s: From the beloved shapes it thirsted for.


s: Life held delicious offerings perished here,


s: How many in the prime of all that charms,


s: Crowned with all gifts that conquer and endear!


s: Honor them not so much with tears and flowers,


s: But you with whom the sweet fulfilment lies,


s: Turned their last thoughts and closed their dying eyes,


s: Rather when music on bright gatherings lays


s: Be mindful of the men they were, and raise


s: Your glasses to them in one silent toast.


s: Drink to them--amorous of dear Earth as well,


s: They asked no tribute lovelier than this--


s: And in the wine that ripened where they fell,


s: Oh, frame your lips as though it were a kiss.


s: A league and a league from the trenches--from the traversed


s: Where daylong the sniper watches and daylong the bullet whines,


s: And the cratered earth is in travail with mines and with


s: Here, where haply some woman dreamed (are those


s: In the garden beyond the windows of my littered


s: We have decked the map for our masters as a bride is


s: Fair, on each lettered numbered square--crossroad


s: Loophole, redoubt, and emplacement--lie the targets


s: Gay with purples and browns and blues, have we


s: And ever the type-keys chatter; and ever our keen


s: Word from the watchers a-crouch below, word from


s: And ever we hear the distant growl of our hid 'guns


s: Hear it hardly, and turn again to our maps, where the


s: Red on the gray and each with a sign for the ranging


s: Snakes that our masters shall scotch at dawn, as is


s: For the weeks of our waiting draw to a close....


s: In the garden beyond my windows, where the twilight


s: The blaze of some woman's roses.... "Bombardment


s: Where the mud is churned and splashed about


s: And yet beside one stricken house there is a glimpse of grass--


s: Along its weedy surface but the nimble-footed mouse,


s: In noisy continuity until their stony rattle


s: And there some yellow daffodils, and jasmine hanging high,


s: And so thick were the blossoms set and so divine the scent,


s: Dancing with a measured step from wrecked and shattered towns


s: All that a man might ask thou hast given me, England,


s: Birthright and happy childhood's long heart's-ease,


s: And love whose range is deep beyond all sounding


s: A heart to front the world and find God in it.


s: Eyes blind enow but not too blind to see


s: The lovely things behind the dross and darkness,


s: And friends whose loyalty time nor death shall weaken


s: And quenchless hope and laughter's golden store--


s: That now when envious foes would spoil thy splendour,


s: May in thy ranks be deemed not all unworthy,


s: Was there love once? I have forgotten her.


s: Was there grief once? Grief yet is mine.


s: Other loves I have, men rough, but men who stir


s: More grief, more joy, than love of thee and thine.


s: Faces cheerful, full of whimsical mirth,


s: Bodies enraptured by the abounding earth,


s: Belovèd soldiers who love rough life and breath


s: Not less for dying faithful to the last.


s: O the fading eyes, the grimed face turned bony,


s: Lessening pressure of a hand, shrunk, clammed and stony!


s: All, all my joy, my grief, my love, are thine.


s: We are here in a wood of little beeches:


s: It is in this wise that God speaketh unto me.


s: He layeth hands of healing upon my flesh,


s: Until my soul reaches out myriad and infinite hands


s: This implacable fury and torment of men,


s: Over the tumult of sounds and shaken flame,


s: Bays, and traverses, fringed with wasted herbage,


s: Seed-pods of blue scabious, and some lingering blooms;


s: We stumble, cursing, on the slippery duck-boards.


s: Goaded like the damned by some invisible wrath,


s: A will stronger than weariness, stronger than animal fear,


s: A dusty and flickering light from one feeble candle


s: Silent and motionless, watching while two sleep,


s: With indifferent eyes the blasted and torn land


s: Peopled with stiff prone forms, stupidly rigid,


s: Dead are the lips where love laughed or sang,


s: The hands of youth eager to lay hold of life,


s: With the lust of a man's first strength: ere they were rent.


s: Almost at unawares, savagely; and strewn


s: Of rushing flames, the new bride's burning tears;


s: Thro' memory's mist to stir me more and more,


s: And known this joy and trembled with these fears.


s: The passion that they show me burns so high;


s: Their love, in me who have not looked on love,


s: So fiercely flames; so wildly comes the cry


s: Of stricken women the warrior's call above,


s: To wake again where Helen and Hector move.


s: The dark night, lit by no Intruding star,


s: Fit covering yields to thoughts that roam afar


s: Where many a laden hour too quickly sped


s: In happier times, before the dawn of war,


s: Before the spoiler had whet his sword to mar


s: The faithful living and the mighty dead.


s: It is not that my soul is weighed with woe,


s: But rather wonder, seeing they do but sleep.


s: As birds that in the sinking summer sweep


s: Across the heaven to happier climes to go,


s: So they are gone; and sometimes we must weep,


s: And sometimes, smiling, murmur, "Be it so!"


s: Whose arching boughs were once its shade,


s: By day, by night, along the lines their dull boom rings,


s: And that reverberating roar its challenge flings.


s: Not only unto thee across the narrow sea,


s: But from the loneliest vale in the last land's heart


s: The sad-eyed watching mother sees her sons depart.


s: And freighted full the tumbling waters of ocean are


s: With aid for England from England's sons afar.


s: The glass is dim; we see not wisely, far, nor well,


s: But bred of English bone, and reared on Freedom's wine,


s: All that we have and are we lay on England's shrine.


s: When first I saw you in the curious street


s: Like some platoon of soldier ghosts in grey,


s: My mad impulse was all to smite and slay,


s: To spit upon you--tread you 'neath my feet.


s: But when I saw how each sad soul did greet


s: How from tired eyes looked spirits broken down,


s: How each face showed the pale flag of defeat,


s: And doubt, despair, and disillusionment,


s: And how were grievous wounds on many a head.


s: And on your garb red-faced was other red;


s: And how you stooped as men whose strength was spent,


s: I knew that we had suffered each as other,


s: And could have grasped your hand and cried, "My brother!"


s: Youth flickers out like wind-blown flame,


s: To think sweet thoughts, to do good deeds.


s: Stands out one figure beautiful, serene;


s: No grime of smoke nor reeking blood hath smutched


s: The virgin brow of this unconquered queen.


s: The unstilled tremors of the fearful heart;


s: And gives to each the strength to bear his part.


s: Her eye shall not be dimmed, but as a flame


s: Shall light the distant ages with its fire,


s: That men may know the glory of her name,


s: That purified our souls of fear's desire.


s: And she doth calm our sorrow, soothe our pain,


s: And she shall lead us back to peace again.


s: At last there'll dawn the last of the long year,


s: Of the long year that seemed to dream no end,


s: Whose every dawn but turned the world more drear,


s: And slew some hope, or led away some friend.


s: We care not, day, but leave not death behind.


s: The hours that feed on war go heavy-hearted,


s: Death is no fare wherewith to make hearts fain.


s: Oh, we are sick to find that they who started


s: With glamour in their eyes came not again.


s: For tiny hopes like tiny flowers of Spring


s: Will come, though death and ruin hold the land,


s: Though storms may roar they may not break the wing


s: Of the earthed lark whose song is ever bland.


s: Fell year unpitiful, slow days of scorn,


s: Your kind shall die, and sweeter days be born.


s: Around no fire the soldiers sleep to-night,


s: But lie a-wearied on the ice-bound field,


s: With cloaks wrapt round their sleeping forms, to shield


s: Them from the northern winds. Ere comes the light


s: Of morn brave men must arm, stern foes to fight.


s: The sentry stands, his limbs with cold congealed;


s: His head a-nod with sleep; he cannot yield,


s: Though sleep and snow in deadly force unite.


s: Amongst the sleepers lies the Boy awake,


s: And wide-eyed plans brave glories that transcend


s: The deeds of heroes dead; then dreams o'ertake


s: His tired-out brain, and lofty fancies blend


s: To one grand theme, and through all barriers break


s: To guard from hurt his faithful sleeping friend.


s: See you that stretch of shell-torn mud spotted with


s: Crossed by a burst abandoned trench and tortured


s: Where splintered pickets reel and sag and leprous


s: That scour the Devil's hunting-ground to seek their


s: That is the field my father loved, the field that once


s: The land I nursed for my child's child as my fathers


s: See there a mound of powdered stones, all flattened,


s: Gone black with damp and green with slime?--Ere


s: My father's father built a house, a little house and


s: And there I brought my woman home--that heap of


s: The soil of France! Fat fields and green that bred my


s: Each wound that scars my bosom's pride burns deeper


s: But yet there is one thing to say--one thing that


s: Whatever lot our bodies know, whatever fate befall,


s: We hold the line! We hold it still! My fields are No


s: But the good God is debonair and holds us by the


s: "_On les aura!_" See there! and there I soaked heaps


s: My fields shall laugh--enriched by those who sought


s: Quiet thou didst stand at thine appointed place,


s: There was no press to purchase--younger grace


s: Attracts the youth of valour. Thou didst not know,


s: To haste. Yet one could say, "In thine I prize


s: The strength of calm that held in Mary's eyes."


s: And when they came, thy gracious smile so wrought


s: They knew that they were given, not that they bought.


s: Thou didst not tempt to vauntings, and pretence


s: Blest who have seen, for they shall ever see


s: Oh! yon hills are filled with sunlight, and the green


s: And the smoking mists of Autumn hanging faintly


s: I dream of hills of other days whose sides I loved to


s: When Spring was dancing through the lanes of those


s: The winds of heaven gathered there as pure and cold


s: Wood-sorrel and wild violets along the hedgerows


s: The blossom on the pear-trees was as white as flakes


s: In the orchard 'neath the shadow of those distant


s: The first white frost in the meadow will be shining


s: And the furrowed upland glinting warm beside the


s: There, a bright face and a clear hearth will be waiting


s: And my heart is throbbing wildly for those distant


s: It is not small, your priesthood's price.


s: But yours, for our great Captain Christ,


s: A sword must pierce your own soul through.


s: Speed the brave soul whose failing breath


s: What though you tread the roads of Hell,


s: Your hearts, your lives right willingly ye gave,


s: Ye fell, bright spirits, brave amongst the brave,


s: And when our griefs have passed on gloomy wing,


s: 'Mid the roar and the reeling shadows of blood


s: They bind up the hurts and the pain-writhen


s: But they take not their courage from anger


s: Yet the wounds of the mind they are stricken with,


s: For an hour from the faith that they follow,


s: What song shall be worthy to sing of them--


s: And sightless warriors clutch the leaves


s: Dark, dark lay the drifters, against the red west,


s: As they shot their long meshes of steel overside;


s: And the oily green waters were rocking to rest


s: When _Kilmeny_ went out, at the turn of the tide.


s: And nobody knew where that lassie would roam,


s: For the magic that called her was tapping unseen,


s: It was well nigh a week ere _Kilmeny_ came home,


s: And nobody knew where _Kilmeny_ had been.


s: She'd a gun at her bow that was Newcastle's best,


s: And a gun at her stern that was fresh from the Clyde,


s: And a secret her skipper had never confessed,


s: Not even at dawn, to his newly wed bride;


s: And a wireless that whispered above like a gnome,


s: The laughter of London, the boasts of Berlin.


s: O, it may have been mermaids that lured her from home,


s: But nobody knew where _Kilmeny_ had been.


s: It was dark when _Kilmeny_ came home from her quest,


s: With her bridge dabbled red where her skipper had died;


s: But she moved like a bride with a rose at her breast;


s: And "Well done, Kilmeny!" the admiral cried.


s: Now at sixty-four fathom a conger may come,


s: And nose at the bones of a drowned submarine;


s: But late in the evening _Kilmeny_ came home,


s: There's a wandering shadow that stares at the foam,


s: Though they sing all the night to old England, their queen,


s: Late, late in the evening _Kilmeny_ came home,


s: And nobody knew where _Kilmeny_ had been.


s: Dawn off the Foreland--the young flood making


s: Black in the hollows and bright where it's breaking--


s: Noon off the Foreland--the first ebb making


s: Boom after boom, and the golf-hut shaking


s: Dusk off the Foreland--the last light going


s: And five damned trawlers with their syreens blowing


s: _You_, whose black trail of butchered ships


s: Their horrors! Have you never thought,--


s: Women and children whom you left to drown.


s: To safeguard law and freedom on the deep!


s: The "Ought" stands out above the "Must,"


s: Where, underneath, the restless waters flow--


s: Dim in the east there burns a new-born sun,


s: Whose rosy gleams along the ripples run,


s: And now appears beneath the milk-white haze


s: A little fleet of anchored ships, which lie


s: And seem as they are yet fast bound by sleep,


s: Although the day has long begun to peep,


s: The fresh, cold wind of dawn blows on my face


s: As in the sun's raw heart I swiftly fly,


s: Scarce human seem I, moving through the skies,


s: And far removed from warlike enterprise--


s: Whose white and gleaming wings beat on through space.


s: Then do I feel with God quite, quite alone,


s: High in the virgin morn, so white and still,


s: My prayers transcend my feeble earth-bound plaints--


s: As though the glowing sun were God's bright Throne.


s: My flight is done. I cross the line of foam


s: That breaks around a town of grey and red,


s: Beneath the silent dawn--then am I proud


s: That England's peace to guard I am allowed;


s: In thanks to Him Who brings me safely home.


s: They had hot scent across the spumy sea,


s: _Gehenna_ and her sister, swift _Shaitan_,


s: That in the pack, with _Goblin_, _Eblis_ ran


s: And many a couple more, full cry, foot-free;


s: The dog-fox and his brood were fain to flee,


s: But bare of fang and dangerous to the van


s: That pressed them close. So when the kill began


s: Some hounds were lamed and some died splendidly.


s: And the last fox had slunk back to his earth,


s: They kept the great traditions of the pack,


s: Staunch-hearted through the hunt, as they were born,


s: These hounds that England suckled at the birth.


s: Oh, down by Millwall Basin as I went the other day,


s: I met a skipper that I knew, and to him I did say:


s: "Now what's the cargo, Captain, that brings you up this way?"


s: "Oh, I've been up and down (said he) and round about also....


s: With a leaking steam-pipe all the way to Californ-i-o....


s: "With pots and pans and ivory fans and every kind of thing,


s: Rails and nails and cotton bales, and sewer pipes and string....


s: But now I'm through with cargoes, and I'm here to serve the King!


s: "And if it's sweeping mines (to which my fancy somewhat leans)


s: Or hanging out with booby-traps for the skulking submarines,


s: I'm here to do my blooming best and give the beggars beans!


s: "A rough job and a tough job is the best job for me,


s: And what or where I don't much care, I'll take what it may be,


s: There's not a port he doesn't know from Melbourne to New York;


s: He's the terror of the fo'c's'le when he heals its various ills


s: He'll spin you yarns from dawn to dark--and half of 'em are true!


s: A rough job or a tough job--he's handled two or three--


s: Courage came to you with your boyhood's grace


s: Each day new dangers steeled you to the test,


s: Your hot blood taught you carelessness of death


s: An Empire's team, a rougher football field,


s: Yes, you wore courage as you wore your youth


s: But in what Spartan school of discipline


s: How did you learn to bear this long-drawn pain


s: Restless with throbbing hopes, with thwarted aims,


s: How do you lie here month by weary month


s: What joy can these monotonous days afford


s: Yet you are merry as the birds in spring,


s: Lest those who dress and tend your wound each day


s: Lest they should suffer--this the only fear


s: Greybeard philosophy has sought in books


s: That man is greater than his pain, but you


s: Death would have found you brave, but braver still


s: You bear your knowledge lightly, graduate


s: Careless philosopher, the first to laugh,


s: Unmindful that you teach, you taught me this


s: Since God made man so good--here stands my creed--


s: When consciousness came back, he found he lay


s: Between the opposing fires, but could not tell


s: On which hand were his friends; and either way


s: For him to turn was chancy--bullet and shell


s: Whistling and shrieking over him, as the glare


s: Of searchlights scoured the darkness to blind day.


s: He scrambled to his hands and knees ascare,


s: Dragging his wounded foot through puddled clay,


s: And tumbled in a hole a shell had scooped


s: The unseen trenches where the foes lay cooped


s: Dead-locked, league-stretching armies; and quite spent


s: And lay secure, thinking of all it meant--


s: His lying in that little hole, sore hit,


s: Shrapnel and shell went screeching overhead--


s: Of all it meant that he, Tom Dodd, should lie


s: Among the Belgian turnips, while his bed....


s: If it were he, indeed, who'd climbed each night,


s: And slipt his clothes off in the candle-light,


s: Too tired to fold them neatly in a chair


s: The way his mother'd taught him--too dog-tired


s: After the long day's serving in the shop,


s: Politely talking weather, fit to drop....


s: And now for fourteen days and nights, at least,


s: He hadn't had his clothes off, and had lain


s: How things turned out--the chances! You'd just got


s: To take your luck in life, you couldn't change


s: Who just six months ago had thought to spend


s: His days behind a counter. Still, perhaps....


s: And now, God only knew how he would end!


s: Had won back to the trench alive, when he


s: Had fallen wounded and been left for dead,


s: From selling knots of tape and reels of thread


s: And knots of tape and reels of thread and knots


s: Of tape and reels of thread and knots of tape,


s: Day in, day out, and answering "Have you got"'s


s: And "Do you keep"'s till there seemed no escape


s: Now. Every bone was aching, and had ached


s: For fourteen days and nights in that wet trench--


s: Just duller when he slept than when he waked--


s: Crouching for shelter from the steady drench


s: Almost like home to him. He'd slept and fed


s: And sung and smoked in it, while shrapnel screamed


s: And shells went whining harmless overhead--


s: At breakfast, when he'd said he couldn't stick


s: Eating dry bread, and crawled out the back way,


s: And brought them butter in a lordly dish--


s: Butter enough for all, and held it high,


s: Yellow and fresh and clean as you would wish--


s: When plump upon the plate from out the sky


s: A shell fell bursting.... Where the butter went,


s: The shrieking and the whistling and the stink


s: He'd lived in fourteen days and nights. 'T was luck


s: That he still lived.... And queer how little then


s: That hardened him--a man among the men--


s: Perhaps.... Yet, only think things out a bit,


s: And he was rabbit-livered, blue with funk!


s: He hadn't turned a hair. The meanest skunk


s: He should have thought would feel it when his mate


s: Grinning like sin, and holding up the plate--


s: But he had gone on munching his dry hunch,


s: Unwinking, till he swallowed the last crumb.


s: Perhaps 't was just because he dared not let


s: He dared not now, though he could not forget.


s: From first to last; and you'd just got to trust


s: Your luck and grin. It wasn't so much pluck


s: As knowing that you'd got to, when needs must,


s: The quiet darkness brooded, as he scanned


s: So many stars. Although, of course, he'd known


s: That there were stars, somehow before the war


s: He'd never realised them--so thick-sown,


s: Millions and millions. Serving in the shop,


s: Stars didn't count for much; and then at nights


s: Strolling the pavements, dull and fit to drop,


s: You didn't see much but the city lights.


s: As he'd seen this last fortnight. It was queer


s: The things war taught you. He'd a mind to try


s: To count the stars--they shone so bright and clear.


s: One, two, three, four.... Ah, God, but he was tired....


s: And what was the next thing that she required?


s: He handled knots of tape and reels of thread,


s: Politely talking weather, fit to drop....


s: Flared blind with searchlights, and the shriek of shell


s: And scream of shrapnel roused him. Drowsily


s: He stared about him, wondering. Then he fell


s: Two dark eyes peeping at him, ere he knew


s: An August morning, burning to clear blue.


s: A sound of firing.... Up there, in the sky


s: Big dragon-flies hung hovering.... Snowballs burst


s: About them.... Flies and snowballs. With a cry


s: He crouched to watch the airmen pass--the first


s: That he'd seen under fire. Lord, that was pluck--


s: Shells bursting all about them--and what nerve!


s: They took their chance, and trusted to their luck.


s: At such a dizzy height to dip and swerve,


s: It righted, and then turned; and after it


s: The whole flock followed safe--four, five, six, seven,


s: Yes, they were all there safe. He hoped they'd win


s: Back to their lines in safety. They deserved,


s: Even if they were Germans.... 'T was no sin


s: To wish them luck. Think how that beggar swerved


s: To win back to the lines, though, likely as not,


s: He'd take the wrong turn: but he couldn't lie


s: He'd got to take his luck, to take his chance


s: Of being sniped by foes or friends. He'd be


s: The blazing day burnt over him, shot and shell


s: Whistling and whining ceaselessly. But light


s: He rose, and crawled away into the night.


s: (AFTER W.H. LEATHAM'S _The Comrade in White_)


s: For a moment I thought that I saw the smock


s: Straight at a mark no bullet could fail;


s: For the seeker was tall and his robe was bright;


s: No pain now was mine, but a wish that I spoke,--


s: Who had ventured through hell my doom to revoke,


s: I begged him to tell me how best I might aid him,


s: Shot through the hands that were clasped in prayer!


s: All horrors that ever these war-drenched lands


s: Had known or would know till the mad world's end.


s: And she kissed him and kissed him, and oh


s: They sent him back to her. The letter came


s: Saying ... and she could have him. And before


s: She could be sure there was no hidden ill


s: Under the formal writing, he was in her sight--


s: Living.--They gave him back to her alive--


s: How else? They are not known to send the dead--


s: "What was it, dear?" And she had given all


s: And still she had all--_they_ had--they the lucky!


s: Wasn't she glad now? Everything seemed won,


s: And all the rest for them permissible ease.


s: Yet not enough. A bullet through and through,


s: High in the breast. Nothing but what good care


s: She dared no more than ask him with her eyes


s: And with his eyes he asked her not to ask.


s: They had given him back to her, but not to keep.


s: Blow out, you bugles, over the rich Dead!


s: There's none of these so lonely and poor of old,


s: But, dying, has made us rarer gifts than gold.


s: These laid the world away; poured out the red


s: Sweet wine of youth; gave up the years to be


s: Of work and joy, and that unhoped serene,


s: That men call age; and those who would have been,


s: Their sons, they gave, their immortality.


s: Blow, bugles, blow! They brought us, for our dearth,


s: Holiness, lacked so long, and Love, and Pain.


s: Honour has come back, as a king, to earth,


s: And paid his subjects with a royal wage;


s: These hearts were woven of human joys and cares


s: Washed marvellously with sorrow, swift to mirth.


s: The years had given them kindness. Dawn was theirs,


s: And sunset, and the colours of the earth.


s: These had seen movement and heard music; known


s: Slumber and waking; loved; gone proudly friended;


s: Felt the quick stir of wonder; sat alone;


s: Touched flowers and furs and cheeks. All this is ended.


s: There are waters blown by changing winds to laughter


s: And lit by the rich skies, all day. And after,


s: Frost, with a gesture, stays the waves that dance


s: And wandering loveliness. He leaves a white


s: A width, a shining peace, under the night.


s: Here, where we stood together, we three men,


s: Three thousand miles away, I stand again


s: And bear the bells, and breathe, and go to feast.


s: We trod the same path, to the selfsame place,


s: Yet here I stand, having beheld their graves,


s: Skyros whose shadows the great seas erase,


s: And Seddul Bahr that ever more blood craves.


s: So, since we communed here, our bones have been


s: Nearer, perhaps, than they again will be,


s: Earth and the worldwide battle lie between,


s: Death lies between, and friend-destroying sea.


s: Yet here, a year ago, we talked and stood


s: As I stand now, with pulses beating blood.


s: Then the gale's darkness put the shadow by,


s: But from one grave that island talked to me;


s: And, in the midnight, in the breaking storm,


s: I saw its blackness and a blinking light,


s: And thought, "So death obscures your gentle form,


s: So memory strives to make the darkness bright;


s: And, in that heap of rocks, your body lies,


s: Part of the island till the planet ends,


s: Part of this crag this bitter surge offends,


s: While I, who pass, a little obscure thing,


s: War with this force, and breathe, and am its king."


s: With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,


s: England mourns for her dead across the sea.


s: Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,


s: Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal


s: There is music in the midst of desolation


s: They went with songs to the battle, they were young,


s: Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.


s: They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted:


s: They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:


s: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.


s: At the going down of the sun and in the morning


s: They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;


s: They sit no more at familiar tables of home;


s: They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;


s: But where our desires are and our hopes profound,


s: Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,


s: To the innermost heart of their own land they are known


s: As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,


s: Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;


s: As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,


s: Saints have adored the lofty soul of you.


s: Poets have whitened at your high renown.


s: Do hourly wait to pass your pathway down.


s: You, so familiar, once were strange: we tried


s: We see your straight and steadfast signpost there.


s: I think it like that signpost in my land


s: Upward, into the hills, on the right hand,


s: Where the mists swim and the winds shriek and blow,


s: A homeless land and friendless, but a land


s: I did not know and that I wished to know.


s: Such, such is Death: no triumph: no defeat:


s: Only an empty pail, a slate rubbed clean,


s: A merciful putting away of what has been.


s: And this we know: Death is not Life effete,


s: Life crushed, the broken pail. We who have seen


s: So marvellous things know well the end not yet.


s: Victor and vanquished are a-one in death:


s: Coward and brave: friend, foe. Ghosts do not say,


s: "Come, what was your record when you drew breath?"


s: And your bright Promise, withered long and sped,


s: Is touched, stirs, rises, opens and grows sweet


s: And blossoms and is you, when you are dead.


s: Our pleasant friends in home and street;


s: All mangled now, where shells have burst,


s: And lead and steel have done their worst;


s: And some leave wives behind, young wives;


s: Strange ghostly banners o'er them float,


s: Dear Christ, who reign'st above the flood


s: Lest the young soldiers be strange in heaven,


s: God bids the old soldier they all adored


s: Come to Him and wait for them, clean, new-shriven,


s: A happy doorkeeper in the House of the Lord.


s: Lest it abash them, the strange new splendour,


s: Lest it affright them, the new robes clean;


s: Here's an old face, now, long-tried, and tender,


s: A word and a hand-clasp as they troop in.


s: "My boys," he greets them: and heaven is homely,


s: He their great captain in days gone o'er;


s: Dear is the friend's face, honest and comely,


s: Waiting to welcome them by the strange door.


s: And face thy country's peril wheresoe'er,


s: Directing war and peace with equal care,


s: Whom England call'd and bade "Set my arm free


s: To obey my will and save my honour fair,"--


s: What day the foe presumed on her despair


s: And she herself had trust in none but thee:


s: That mass'd the labour of ten years in one


s: Shall be thy monument. Thy work was done


s: Ere we could thank thee; and the high sea swell


s: Surgeth unheeding where thy proud ship fell


s: As with a threat of challenge stubborn earth


s: Booms at that far wild sea-line charging home.


s: The night shall stand upon the shifting sea


s: And hear the cry of waters through the air,


s: The iron voice of headlands start and rise--


s: That screams to hear the thunder in those cries.


s: Somewhere below the tidal glooms, and dead.


s: From tempest-known wild water's cry, and roar


s: Sleep in a hushed Atlantic's starry folds


s: As smoothly as, far down below the tides,


s: Gives up its ghosts of strife; by reef and rock


s: With monstrous frenzies of their shore's green foe;


s: Where overstream and overfall and undertow


s: And speak the homeward- and the outward-bound,


s: Saying: "He did great work, until the winds


s: And waters hereabout that night betrayed


s: Him to the drifting death! His work went on--


s: Though where his bones are, no man knows, not one!"


s: The starshells float above, the bayonets glisten;


s: We bear our fallen friend without a sound;


s: Below the waiting legions lie and listen


s: To us, who march upon their burial-ground.


s: Wound in the flag of England, here we lay him;


s: The guns will flash and thunder o'er the grave;


s: What other winding sheet should now array him,


s: What other music should salute the brave?


s: As goes the Sun-god in his chariot glorious,


s: When all his golden banners are unfurled,


s: So goes the soldier, fallen but victorious,


s: And leaves behind a twilight in the world.


s: And those who come this way, in days hereafter,


s: Will know that here a boy for England fell,


s: Who looked at danger with the eyes of laughter,


s: And on the charge his days were ended well.


s: One last salute; the bayonets clash and glisten;


s: With arms reversed we go without a sound:


s: One more has joined the men who lie and listen


s: "I cannot quite remember.... There were five


s: Dropt dead beside me in the trench--and three


s: Whispered their dying messages to me...."


s: Back from the trenches, more dead than alive,


s: Stone-deaf and dazed, and with a broken knee,


s: Dropt dead beside me in the trench, and three


s: Whispered their dying messages to me....


s: "Their friends are waiting, wondering how they thrive--


s: But what they said, or who their friends may be


s: In the face of death, they say, he joked--he had no fear;


s: His comrades, when they laid him in a Flanders grave,


s: Wrote on a rough-hewn cross--a Calvary stood near--


s: "His life, cheering his men, with laughter on his lips."


s: So wrote they, mourning him. Yet was there only one


s: Who fully understood his laughter, his gay quips,


s: She who, not so long since, when love was new--confest,


s: Herself toyed with light laughter while her eyes were dim,


s: And jested, while with reverence despite her jest


s: She knew--O Love, O Death!--his soul had been at grips


s: With the most solemn things. For _she_, was _she_ not dear?


s: Yes, he was brave, most brave, with laughter on his lips,


s: Not long did we lie on the torn, red field of pain.


s: We fell, we lay, we slumbered, we took rest,


s: With the wild nerves quiet at last, and the vexed brain


s: Cleared of the wingèd nightmares, and the breast


s: Freed of the heavy dreams of hearts afar.


s: We rose, and greeted our brothers, and welcomed our foes.


s: We rose; like the wheat when the wind is over, we rose.


s: With shouts we rose, with gasps and incredulous cries,


s: With bursts of singing, and silence, and awestruck eyes,


s: With broken laughter, half tears, we rose from the sod,


s: With welling tears and with glad lips, whispering, "God."


s: Like babes, refreshed from sleep, like children, we rose,


s: Brimming with deep content, from our dreamless repose.


s: And, "What do you call it?" asked one. "I thought I was dead."


s: "You are," cried another. "We're all of us dead and flat."


s: "I'm alive as a cricket. There's something wrong with your head."


s: Spoke of small things, remembering not old woe


s: Of war and hunger, hatred and fierce words.


s: They sat and listened to the brooks and birds,


s: And watched the starlight perish in pale flame,


s: Wondering what God would look like when He came.


s: We may not know how fared your soul before


s: Perchance, it used on lofty wings to soar;


s: We do not know if bygone knightly strain


s: Impelled you then, or blood of humble clod


s: We see but this, that when the moment came


s: You raised on high, then drained, the solemn cup--


s: The grail of death; that, touched by valor's flame,


s: Twitter of mating birds, flutter of wings


s: In April coverts, and the streams that flow--


s: Since you went eastward with the fighting ships,


s: And God has laid His finger on your lips.


s: We challenged Death. He threw with weighted dice.


s: We laughed and paid the forfeit, glad to pay--


s: With that nor Death nor Time can take away.


s: And the poppies grow in the golden wheat,


s: For the men whose eyes are heavy with sleep,


s: Where the ground is red as the English rose,


s: And the lips as the lilies of France are pale,


s: And the ebbing pulses beat fainter and fainter and fail.


s: Will grow for a love that never and never can fail.


s: And bleeding furrows, with their sodden yield


s: The teeming field, and darkly overstrewn


s: With all the garnered fullness of that noon--


s: One was a Woman, men had called their mother:


s: On those unquiet gleanings, where they bled;


s: We should laugh now together, I and you;


s: You, for your ever dreaming it was worth


s: A star's while to look on, and light the earth;


s: Glory it was and gladness, to give birth


s: I gave the breath,--and thought it not amiss,


s: We called you once Dead World, and barren thing.


s: Striving awhile, through many a bleeding dune


s: Moon, slow rising, over the trembling sea-rim,


s: Moon of the lifted tides and their folded burden.


s: Look, look down. And gather the blinded oceans,


s: Come, white Silence, over the one sea pathway:


s: Pour with hallowing hands on the surge and outcry,


s: Silver flame; and over the famished blackness,


s: Once again, the formless void of a world-wreck


s: Gropes its way through the echoing dark of chaos;


s: Tide on tide, to the calling, lost horizons,--


s: You that veil the light of the all-beholding,


s: Shed white tidings down to the dooms of longing,


s: Down to the timeless dark; and the sunken treasures,


s: Touch, and harken,--under that shrouding silver,


s: Rise and fall, the heart of the sea and its legions,


s: All and one; one with the breath of the deathless,


s: Ebb and flow, the deep, and the dead in their longing:


s: Till at last, on the hungering face of the waters,


s: _Light of Light, give us to see, for their sake.


s: Light of Light, grant them eternal peace;


s: And let light perpetual shine upon them;


s: I made with loving care for his dear feet.


s: And once again I warm those little feet.


s: Where do those strong young feet now stand?


s: In flooded trench, half numb to cold or pain,


s: To some dread place that they may never gain.


s: Though death may lurk in any tree or hill,


s: Trusting in that they'll follow where he will.


s: That other men have won as brave as he--


s: My son, and bring him safely back to me!


s: This was the gleam then that lured from far


s: With the banner of Christ over them, in steel arrayed.


s: When they were little for their mother's kiss.


s: To the vows and the vigil and the road of thorn.


s: Sheltered in mother's breast, by mother's wings,


s: Should they be broken in the Lord's wars--Peace!


s: He Who has given them--are they not His?


s: Dream of knight's armour and the battle-shout,


s: Fighting and falling at the last redoubt,


s: Dream of long dying on the field of slain;


s: This was the dream that lured, nor lured in vain.


s: These were the Voices they heard from far;


s: Your son and my son have heard the call,


s: Your son and my son have stormed the wall.


s: Your son and my son, clean as new swords;


s: With the banner of Christ over them--our knights new-made.


s: Dear son of mine, the baby days are over,


s: I can no longer shield you from the earth;


s: How through the dark I fought to give you birth.


s: Dear son of mine, by all the lives behind you;


s: By all our fathers fought for in the past;


s: In this great war to which your birth has brought you,


s: Acquit you well, hold you our honour fast!


s: God guard you, son of mine, where'er you wander;


s: God lead the banners under which you fight;


s: You are my all, I give you to the Nation,


s: God shall uphold you that you fight aright.


s: Robbed mother of the stricken Motherland--


s: Two hearts in one and one among the dead,


s: Before your grave with an uncovered head


s: I, that am man, disquiet and silent stand


s: In reverence. It is your blood they shed;


s: It is your sacred self that they demand,


s: For one you bore in joy and hope, and planned


s: Would make yourself eternal, now has fled.


s: But though you yielded him unto the knife


s: Of your most precious self and dearer life--


s: Your master gem and pearl above all price--


s: Content you; for the dawn this night restores


s: Shall be the dayspring of his soul and yours.


s: The sun turns north, the days grow long,


s: The apple-blooms will shed their breath--


s: BEWSHER, PAUL. He was educated at St. Paul's School, and is a


s: BRIDGES, ROBERT. He has been Poet-Laureate of England since 1913.


s: DIXON, WILLIAM MACNEILE. He is Professor of English Language and


s: FIELD, A.N. He is a private in the Second New Zealand Brigade.


s: transferred to the Royal Field Artillery in March, 1915, and was


s: GIBSON, WILFRID WILSON. His war writings include _Battle_, etc.


s: HARDY, THOMAS. He received the Order of Merit in 1910.


s: HOWARD, GEOFFREY. He is a Lieutenant in the Royal Fusiliers.


s: KNIGHT-ADKIN, JAMES. When war was declared he was a Master at the


s: LUCAS, EDWARD VERRALL. Mr. Lucas has undertaken hospital service.


s: OSWALD, SYDNEY. He is a Major in the King's Royal Rifle Corps.


s: RATCLIFFE, A. VICTOR. He was a Lieutenant in the 10th/13th West


s: Yorkshire Regiment, and was killed in action on July 1, 1916.


s: WHARTON, EDITH. She has written _Fighting France_, etc.


s: A sudden swirl of song in the bright sky


s: All that a man might ask thou hast given me, England


s: Around no fire the soldiers sleep to-night


s: At last there'll dawn the last of the long year


s: Because for once the sword broke in her hand


s: Blow out, you bugles, over the rich Dead


s: Brothers in blood! They who this wrong began


s: By day, by night, along the lines their dull boom rings


s: Courage came to you with your boyhood's grace


s: Dark, dark lay the drifters, against the red west


s: Dawn off the Foreland--the young flood making


s: Dear son of mine, the baby days are over


s: Dreary lay the long road, dreary lay the town


s: England, in this great fight to which you go


s: Far fall the day when England's realm shall see


s: Great names of thy great captains gone before


s: Hearken, the feet of the Destroyer tread


s: Here lies a clerk who half his life had spent


s: Here, where we stood together, we three men


s: I cannot quite remember.... There were five


s: I heard the rumbling guns, I saw the smoke


s: I pray for peace; yet peace is but a prayer


s: I saw her first abreast the Boston Light


s: I will die cheering, if I needs must die


s: In the face of death, they say, he joked--he had no fear


s: Land of the Martyrs--of the martyred dead


s: Lest the young soldiers be strange in heaven


s: Low and brown barns, thatched and repatched and tattered


s: Moon, slow rising, over the trembling sea-rim


s: Mother and child! Though the dividing sea


s: Not long did we lie on the torn, red field of pain


s: Not since Wren's Dome has whispered with man's prayer


s: Now is the midnight of the nations: dark


s: Now lamp-lit gardens in the blue dusk shine


s: Now slowly sinks the day-long labouring sun


s: Now spake the Emperor to all his shining battle forces


s: Oh, down by the Millwall Basin as I went the other day


s: Quiet thou didst stand at thine appointed place


s: Robbed mother of the stricken Motherland


s: Saints have adored the lofty soul of you


s: See you that stretch of shell-torn mud spotted with pools of mire


s: She came not into the Presence as a martyred saint might come


s: She was binding the wounds of her enemies when they came


s: The horror-haunted Belgian plains riven by shot and shell


s: The starshells float above, the bayonets glisten


s: They sent him back to her. The letter came


s: This is my faith, and my mind's heritage


s: This was the gleam then that lured from far


s: Those who have stood for thy cause when the dark was around thee


s: Thou warden of the western gate, above Manhattan Bay


s: Three hundred thousand men, but not enough


s: Was there love once? I have forgotten her


s: We challenged Death. He threw with weighted dice


s: We may not know how fared your soul before


s: We willed it not. We have not lived in hate


s: What is the gift we have given thee, Sister?


s: What was it kept you so long, brave German submersible?


s: When consciousness came back, he found he lay


s: When first I saw you in the curious street


s: When the fire sinks in the grate, and night has bent


s: Whence not unmoved I see the nations form


s: With arrows on their quarters and with numbers on their hoofs


s: With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children


s: You have become a forge of snow-white fire


s: The Tables turned; an Evening Scene, on the same subject


s: The Complaint of a forsaken Indian Woman


s: Lines written at a small distance from my House and sent me by my


s: The Nightingale, written in April, 1798.


s: Lines written when sailing in a Boat at Evening


s: Lines written near Richmond, upon the Thames


s: The First Volume of these Poems has already been submitted to


s: other hand I was well aware that by those who should dislike them


s: differed from my expectation in this only, that I have pleased a


s: greater number, than I ventured to hope I should please.


s: Several of my Friends are anxious for the success of these Poems


s: from a belief, that if the views, with which they were composed,


s: were indeed realized, a class of Poetry would be produced, well


s: forth by metrical language must in different aeras of literature


s: contracted. I hope therefore the Reader will not censure me, if I


s: purpose: that at least he may be spared any unpleasant feeling of


s: dishonorable accusation which can be brought against an Author,


s: greater simplicity and consequently may be more accurately


s: passions of men are incorporated with the beautiful and permanent


s: communicate with the best objects from which the best part of


s: language is originally derived; and because, from their rank in


s: society and the sameness and narrow circle of their intercourse,


s: being less under the action of social vanity they convey their


s: feelings and notions in simple and unelaborated expressions.


s: contemporaries have occasionally introduced into their metrical


s: consequences. From such verses the Poems in these volumes will be


s: representatives of all our past feelings; and as by contemplating


s: association, must necessarily be in some degree enlightened, his


s: taste exalted, and his affections ameliorated.


s: I have said that each of these poems has a purpose. I have also


s: exist now and will probably always exist, and which from their


s: importance to the action and situation and not the action and


s: situation to the feeling. My meaning will be rendered perfectly


s: I will not suffer a sense of false modesty to prevent me from


s: asserting, that I point my Reader's attention to this mark of


s: distinction far less for the sake of these particular Poems than


s: from the general importance of the subject. The subject is indeed


s: another in proportion as he possesses this capability. It has


s: therefore appeared to me that to endeavour to produce or enlarge


s: unknown to former times are now acting with a combined force to


s: blunt the discriminating powers of the mind, and unfitting it for


s: torpor. The most effective of these causes are the great national


s: ashamed to have spoken of the feeble effort with which I have


s: melancholy, had I not a deep impression of certain inherent and


s: Having dwelt thus long on the subjects and aim of these Poems, I


s: shall request the Reader's permission to apprize him of a few


s: circumstances relating to their _style_, in order, among other


s: interest him. Not but that I believe that others who pursue a


s: others ordinarily take to produce it; this I have done for the


s: myself to impart is of a kind very different from that which is


s: If in a Poem there should be found a series of lines, or even a


s: single line, in which the language, though naturally arranged and


s: necessarily, except with reference to the metre, in no respect


s: In vain to me the smiling mornings shine,


s: And reddening Phoebus lifts his golden fire:


s: The birds in vain their amorous descant join,


s: Or chearful fields resume their green attire:


s: These ears alas! for other notes repine;


s: _A different object do these eyes require;


s: My lonely anguish melts no heart but mine;


s: And in my breast the imperfect joys expire;_


s: Yet Morning smiles the busy race to cheer,


s: And new-born pleasure brings to happier men;


s: The fields to all their wonted tribute bear;


s: To warm their little loves the birds complain.


s: _I fruitless mourn to him that cannot hear


s: And weep the more because I weep in vain._


s: neither is nor can be any essential difference. We are fond of


s: prose composition? They both speak by and to the same organs; the


s: paves the way for other distinctions which the mind voluntarily


s: the Reader is utterly at the mercy of the Poet respecting what


s: imagery or diction he may choose to connect with the passion,


s: whereas in the other the metre obeys certain laws, to which the


s: Poet and Reader both willingly submit because they are certain,


s: and because no interference is made by them with the passion but


s: such as the concurring testimony of ages has shewn to heighten


s: and improve the pleasure which co-exists with it. It will now


s: be proper to answer an obvious question, namely, why, professing


s: universal passions of men, the most general and interesting of


s: that it is injudicious to write in metre unless it be accompanied


s: which poems have continued to give pleasure from generation to


s: written under the impression of this belief.


s: distressful parts of Clarissa Harlowe, or the Gamester. While


s: excitement, then, (unless the Poet's choice of his metre has been


s: feeling, whether chearful or melancholy, which he has been


s: If I had undertaken a systematic defence of the theory upon which


s: which the mind derives from the perception of similitude in


s: I have said that Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful


s: feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in


s: tranquillity: the emotion is contemplated till by a species of


s: reaction the tranquillity gradually disappears, and an emotion,


s: similar to that which was before the subject of contemplation, is


s: accompanied with an overbalance of pleasure. Now the music of


s: impassioned poetry; while in lighter compositions the ease and


s: descriptions either of passions, manners, or characters, each of


s: attention to the truth that the power of the human imagination is


s: sometimes from diseased impulses I may have written upon unworthy


s: Readers by expressions which appeared to me tender and pathetic.


s: Long as I have detained my Reader, I hope he will permit me to


s: Immediately under these lines I will place one of the most justly


s: interesting; the images neither originate in that sane state of


s: feeling which arises out of thought, nor can excite thought or


s: observed, is an _acquired_ talent, which can only be produced by


s: thought and a long continued intercourse with the best models of


s: merely to temper the rashness of decision, and to suggest that if


s: endearing name of Poetry; and all men feel an habitual gratitude,


s: accustomed to be pleased. There is a host of arguments in these


s: Poetry which I am recommending, it would be necessary to give up


s: much of what is ordinarily enjoyed. But would my limits have


s: permitted me to point out how this pleasure is produced, I might


s: have removed many obstacles, and assisted my Reader in perceiving


s: poetry would be produced, which is genuine poetry; in its nature


s: "Where are your books? that light bequeath'd


s: _An Evening Scene, on the same Subject_,


s: Up! up! my friend, and clear your looks,


s: Through all the long green fields has spread,


s: And hark! how blithe the throstle sings!


s: That peck along the road, regard him not.


s: He travels on, and in his face, his step,


s: His gait, is one expression; every limb,


s: His look and bending figure, all bespeak


s: A man who does not move with pain, but moves


s: Long patience has such mild composure given,


s: That patience now doth seem a thing, of which


s: To peace so perfect, that the young behold


s: With envy, what the old man hardly feels.


s: --I asked him whither he was bound, and what


s: Who from a sea-fight had been brought to Falmouth,


s: For clothes, for warmth, for food, and fire;


s: When you were gone my limbs were stronger,


s: And then he stretched his arms, how wild!


s: The way my friends their course did bend,


s: Though little given to care and thought,


s: Like blood-drops from my heart they dropp'd.


s: _Left upon a seat in a YEW-TREE, which stands near the


s: Lake of ESTHWAITE, on a desolate part of the shore,


s: --Nay, Traveller! rest. This lonely yew-tree stands


s: Far from all human dwelling: what if here


s: No sparkling rivulet spread the verdant herb;


s: What if these barren boughs the bee not loves;


s: Yet, if the wind breathe soft, the curling waves,


s: That break against the shore, shall lull thy mind


s: That piled these stones, and with the mossy sod


s: First covered o'er and taught this aged tree


s: With its dark arms to form a circling bower,


s: No common soul. In youth by science nursed


s: Of lofty hopes, he to the world went forth,


s: Which genius did not hallow, 'gainst the taint


s: Of dissolute tongues, and jealousy, and hate


s: And scorn, against all enemies prepared.


s: All but neglect. The world, for so it thought,


s: Owed him no service: he was like a plant


s: Fair to the sun, the darling of the winds,


s: But hung with fruit which no one, that passed by,


s: Regarded, and, his spirit damped at once,


s: And with the food of pride sustained his soul


s: In solitude.--Stranger! these gloomy boughs


s: Had charms for him; and here he loved to sit,


s: The stone-chat, or the glancing sand-piper;


s: And on these barren rocks, with juniper,


s: And heath, and thistle, thinly sprinkled o'er,


s: Fixing his downcast eye, he many an hour


s: A morbid pleasure nourished, tracing here


s: And lifting up his head, he then would gaze


s: On the more distant scene; how lovely 'tis


s: Thou seest, and he would gaze till it became


s: Far lovelier, and his heart could not sustain


s: The beauty still more beauteous. Nor, that time


s: Would he forget those beings, to whose minds,


s: The world, and man himself, appeared a scene


s: Of kindred loveliness: then he would sigh


s: With mournful joy, to think that others felt


s: What he must never feel: and so, lost man!


s: Till his eye streamed with tears. In this deep vale


s: If thou be one whose heart the holy forms


s: Stranger! henceforth be warned; and know, that pride,


s: Is littleness; that he, who feels contempt


s: Which he has never used; that thought with him


s: The least of nature's works, one who might move


s: The wise man to that scorn which wisdom holds


s: Instructed that true knowledge leads to love,


s: Who, in the silent hour of inward thought,


s: Can still suspect, and still revere himself,


s: He was a woodman, and could fell and saw


s: With lusty arm. You know that huge round beam


s: Which props the hanging wall of the old chapel?


s: Beneath that tree, while yet it was a tree


s: With thistle beards, and such small locks of wool


s: As hang on brambles. Well, he brought him home,


s: And reared him at the then Lord Velez' cost.


s: And never learnt a prayer, nor told a bead.


s: But knew the names of birds, and mocked their notes,


s: And whistled, as he were a bird himself:


s: To get the seeds of wild flowers, and to plant them


s: With earth and water, on the stumps of trees.


s: A Friar, who gathered simples in the wood,


s: A grey-haired man--he loved this little boy,


s: The boy loved him--and, when the Friar taught him,


s: He soon could write with the pen: and from that time,


s: Lived chiefly at the Convent or the Castle.


s: But Oh! poor wretch!--he read, and read, and read,


s: Till his brain turned--and ere his twentieth year,


s: He had unlawful thoughts of many things:


s: And though he prayed, he never loved to pray


s: But yet his speech, it was so soft and sweet,


s: The late Lord Velez ne'er was wearied with him.


s: And once, as by the north side of the Chapel


s: They stood together, chained in deep discourse,


s: The earth heaved under them with such a groan,


s: That the wall tottered, and had well-nigh fallen


s: Right on their heads. My Lord was sorely frightened;


s: A fever seized him, and he made confession


s: Which brought this judgment: so the youth was seized


s: And cast into that cell. My husband's father


s: Sobbed like a child--it almost broke his heart:


s: And once as he was working in the cellar,


s: He heard a voice distinctly; 'twas the youth's


s: Who sang a doleful song about green fields,


s: How sweet it were on lake or wild savannah,


s: His love grew desperate; and defying death,


s: He made that cunning entrance I described:


s: With those bold voyagers, who made discovery


s: Of golden lands. Leoni's younger brother


s: Went likewise, and when he returned to Spain,


s: Soon after they arrived in that new world,


s: In spite of his dissuasion, seized a boat,


s: And all alone, set sail by silent moonlight


s: And ne'er was heard of more: but 'tis supposed,


s: Oh! what's the matter? what's the matter?


s: The neighbours tell, and tell you truly,


s: And then her three hours' work at night!


s: But when the ice our streams did fetter,


s: You would have said, if you had met her,


s: And cried, "I've caught you then at last!"


s: She pray'd, her wither'd hand uprearing,


s: His face was gloom, his heart was sorrow,


s: Yet still his jaws and teeth they clatter,


s: And this poor thorn! they clasp it round


s: Cuts like a scythe, while through the clouds


s: 'Tis three feet long, and two feet wide.


s: 'Twas worth your while, though in the dark,


s: 'Twas mist and rain, and storm and rain,


s: Head-foremost, through the driving rain,


s: Through half the clear blue sky will go,


s: "But what's the thorn? and what's the pond?


s: And what's the creeping breeze that comes


s: When all the stars shone clear and bright,


s: "Their graves are green, they may be seen,"


s: "Twelve steps or more from my mother's door,


s: "And when the ground was white with snow,


s: Shewing how the practice of Lying may be taught._


s: "At Kilve's smooth shore by the green sea,


s: "For, here are woods and green hills warm:


s: Written at a small distance from my House, and sent by


s: my little boy to the person to whom they are addressed._


s: The red-breast sings from the tall larch


s: By Derwent's side my Father's cottage stood,


s: One field, a flock, and what the neighbouring flood


s: Supplied, to him were more than mines of gold.


s: Light was my sleep; my days in transport roll'd:


s: With thoughtless joy I stretch'd along the shore


s: My father's nets, or from the mountain fold


s: Saw on the distant lake his twinkling oar


s: Or watch'd his lazy boat still less'ning more and more


s: To lisp, he made me kneel beside my bed,


s: And in his hearing there my prayers I said:


s: And afterwards, by my good father taught,


s: I read, and loved the books in which I read;


s: For books in every neighbouring house I sought,


s: And nothing to my mind a sweeter pleasure brought.


s: My garden, stored with pease, and mint, and thyme,


s: And rose and lilly for the sabbath morn?


s: The sabbath bells, and their delightful chime;


s: The gambols and wild freaks at shearing time;


s: My hen's rich nest through long grass scarce espied;


s: The cowslip-gathering at May's dewy prime;