Page:A treasury of war poetry, British and American poems of the world war, 1914-1919.djvu/138

 138

We have sought God in a cloudy Heaven,

We have passed by God on earth:

His seven sins and his sorrows seven,

His wayworn mood and mirth,

Like a ragged cloak have hid from us

The secret of his birth.

Brother of men, when now I see

The lads go forth in line,

Thou knowest my heart is hungry in me

As for thy bread and wine;

Thou knowest my heart is bowed in me

To take their death for mine. Henry Newbolt

ATE wafts us from the pygmies' shore:

We swim beneath the epic skies:

A Rome and Carthage war once more,

And wider empires are the prize;

Where the beaked galleys clashed, lo, these

Our iron dragons of the seas!

High o'er the cloudy battle sweep

The wingèd chariots in their flight.

The steely creatures of the deep

Cleave the dark waters' ancient night.

Below, above, in wave, in air

New worlds for conquest everywhere.

More terrible than spear or sword

Those stars that burst with fiery breath:

More loud the battle cries are poured

Along a hundred leagues of death.

So do they fight. How have ye warred,

Defeated Armies of the Lord?