He couldn’t sleep that night.  Stiff in the dark
He groaned and thought of Sundays at the farm,
When he’d go out as cheerful as a lark
In his best suit to wander arm-in-arm
With brown-eyed Gwen, and whisper in her ear
The simple, silly things she liked to hear.

And then he thought:  to-morrow night we trudge
Up to the trenches, and my boots are rotten. 
Five miles of stodgy clay and freezing sludge,
And everything but wretchedness forgotten. 
To-night he’s in the pink; but soon he’ll die. 
And still the war goes on; he don’t know why.

THE HERO

“Jack fell as he’d have wished,” the Mother said,
And folded up the letter that she’d read. 
“The Colonel writes so nicely.”  Something broke
In the tired voice that quavered to a choke. 
She half looked up.  “We mothers are so proud
Of our dead soldiers.”  Then her face was bowed.

Quietly the Brother Officer went out. 
He’d told the poor old dear some gallant lies
That she would nourish all her days, no doubt. 
For while he coughed and mumbled, her weak eyes
Had shone with gentle triumph, brimmed with joy,
Because he’d been so brave, her glorious boy.

He thought how “Jack,” cold-footed, useless swine,
Had panicked down the trench that night the mine
Went up at Wicked Corner; how he’d tried
To get sent home; and how, at last, he died,
Blown to small bits.  And no one seemed to care
Except that lonely woman with white hair.

BEFORE THE BATTLE

Music of whispering trees
Hushed by the broad-winged breeze
Where shaken water gleams;
And evening radiance falling
With reedy bird-notes calling. 
O bear me safe through dark, you low-voiced streams.

I have no need to pray
That fear may pass away;
I scorn the growl and rumble of the fight
That summons me from cool
Silence of marsh and pool,
And yellow lilies islanded in light. 
O river of stars and shadows, lead me through the night.

June 25th, 1916.

THE ROAD

The road is thronged with women; soldiers pass
And halt, but never see them; yet they’re here—­
A patient crowd along the sodden grass,
Silent, worn out with waiting, sick with fear. 
The road goes crawling up a long hillside,
All ruts and stones and sludge, and the emptied dregs
Of battle thrown in heaps.  Here where they died
Are stretched big-bellied horses with stiff legs;
And dead men, bloody-fingered from the fight,
Stare up at caverned darkness winking white.

You in the bomb-scorched kilt, poor sprawling Jock,
You tottered here and fell, and stumbled on,
Half dazed for want of sleep.  No dream could mock
Your reeling brain with comforts lost and gone. 
You did not feel her arms about your knees,
Her blind caress, her lips upon your head: 
Too tired for thoughts of home and love and ease,
The road would serve you well enough for bed.