Part 12 (1/2)

Body and Spirit I surrendered whole To harsh Instructors--and received a soul ...

If mortal man could change me through and through From all I was--what may The G.o.d not do?

HINDU SEPOY IN FRANCE

This man in his own country prayed we know not to what Powers.

We pray Them to reward him for his bravery in ours.

THE COWARD

I could not look on Death, which being known, Men led me to him, blindfold and alone.

SHOCK

My name, my speech, my self I had forgot.

My wife and children came--I knew them not.

I died. My Mother followed. At her call And on her bosom I remembered all.

A GRAVE NEAR CAIRO

G.o.ds of the Nile, should this stout fellow here Get out--get out! He knows not shame nor fear.

PELICANS IN THE WILDERNESS

(A GRAVE NEAR HALFA)

The blown sand heaps on me, that none may learn Where I am laid for whom my children grieve....

O wings that beat at dawning, ye return Out of the desert to your young at eve!

THE FAVOUR

Death favoured me from the first, well knowing I could not endure To wait on him day by day. He quitted my betters and came Whistling over the fields, and, when he had made all sure, 'Thy line is at end,' he said, 'but at least I have saved its name.'

THE BEGINNER

On the first hour of my first day In the front trench I fell.

(Children in boxes at a play Stand up to watch it well.)

R. A. F. (AGED EIGHTEEN)

Laughing through clouds, his milk-teeth still unshed, Cities and men he smote from overhead.

His deaths delivered, he returned to play Childlike, with childish things now put away.

THE REFINED MAN