What sign of those that fought and died The sunlight and the sward. Here leaps ashore the full Sou'west We have no waters to delight Our broad and brookless vales Only the dewpond on the height Only our close-bit thyme that smells Here through the strong and shadeless days The tinkling silence thrills; Or little, lost, Down churches praise The Lord who made the hills: But here the Old Gods guard their round, The heathen kingdom Wilfrid found Though all the rest were all my share, Her nine-and-thirty sisters fair, Yet none more fair than she. Choose ye your need from Thames to Tweed, Such lands as lie 'twixt Rake and Rye, I will go out against the sun By dry and sea-forgotten walls, I will go north about the shaws Or south where windy Piddinghoe's And red beside wide-banked Ouse So to the land our hearts we give And Memory, Use, and Love make live That deeper than our speech and thought, Clay of the pit whence we were wrought God gives all men all earth to love, Ordains for each one spot shall prove Each to his choice, and I rejoice The lot has fallen to me In a fair ground—in a fair ground— MY BOY JACK 1914-18 HAVE you news of my boy Jack?" Not this tide. "When d'you think that he'll come back?" Not with this wind blowing, and this tide. "Has any one else had word of him?" Not this tide. For what is sunk will hardly swim, Not with this wind blowing, and this tide. "Oh, dear, what comfort can I find?" None this tide, Nor any tide, Except he did not shame his kind— Not even with that wind blowing, and that tide. Then hold your head up all the more, This tide, And every tide; Because he was the son you bore, And gave to that wind blowing and that tide! A NATIVITY 1914-18 THE Babe was laid in the Manger All safe from cold and danger- (With mine! With mine!) "Is it well with the child, is it well?" The waiting mother prayed. "For I know not how he fell, And I know not where he is laid." A Star stood forth in Heaven; The Sign of the Promise given— "But there comes no sign to me. (To me! To me!) "My child died in the dark. Is it well with the child, is it well? The Cross was raised on high; His burial-place was made Is it well, is it well with the child? On the dawning of Easter Day (Within! Within!) "Ah, who will answer my word? And I know not where He is laid." "The Star stands forth in Heaven. (Again! Again!) "But I know for Whom he fell"- DIRGE OF DEAD SISTERS 1902 (For the Nurses who died in the South African War) WHO recalls the twilight and the rangèd tents in order WHO (Violet peaks uplifted through the crystal evening air?) And the clink of iron teacups and the piteous, noble laughter, And the faces of the Sisters with the dust upon their hair? (Now and not hereafter, while the breath is in our nostrils, Now and not hereafter, ere the meaner years go by Let us now remember many honourable women, |