Page:A treasury of war poetry, British and American poems of the world war, 1914-1919.djvu/419

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ORD, how can he be dead?

For he stood there just this morn

With the live blood in his cheek

And the live light on his head.

Dost Thou remember, Lord, when he was born,

And all my heart went forth thy praise to seek,

(I, a creator even as Thou,)—

To force Thee to confess

The little, young, heart-breaking loveliness,

Like willow-buds in Spring, upon his brow?

Newest of unfledged things,

All perfect but the wings.

Master, I lit my tender candle-light

Straight at the living fire that rays abroad

From thy dread altar, God!

How should it end in night?

Lord, in my time of trouble, of tearing strife,

Even then I loved thy will, even then I knew

That nothing is so beautiful as life! . ..

Is not the world's great woe thine anguish too?

It hath not passed, thine hour,

Again Thou kneelest in the olive-wood.

The lands are drunk with sharp-set lust of power,

The kings are thirsting, and they pour thy blood.

But we, the mothers, we that found thy trace

Down terrible ways, that looked upon thy face

And are not dead—how should we doubt thy grace?

How many women in how many lands—

Almost I weep for them as for mine own—

That wait beside the desolate hearthstone!

Always before the embattled army stands

The horde of women like a phantom wall,

Barring the way with desperate, futile hands.

The first charge tramples them, the first of all!