Page:Canadian poems of the great war.djvu/156

 Jesse Edgar Middleton

The evening firelight glanced upon their eyes.

They sat, divining, by the yellow flame, Seeing long years of joy; a richer prize,

Fair children to perpetuate a name To the far limits of Eternity.

One sudden blaze of Hell, one roaring blast!

The devil laughter of a coward foe ! Then dreams and love and life itself are past.

What fool can say that God would have it so, Our God, who made the flowers and the sea?

��T

��THE THREE MORE WISE MEN

HREE Sages came from the land of Ur

With a tinkling, sleepy caravan, Bringing jars of frankincense, nard and myrrh

To honour the infant Son of Man, For the Star hung low like a heavenly gem O er the drowsy stable of Bethlehem.

And the blundering years are fled away, A score of centuries, dark and grim.

But three more Sages marched in today

With their saddles worn, but their horses trim.

The dew of a world in grief distils

On the sentries pacing the sacred hills.

And one of the Three is good St. George,

A cavalryman of ancient time, Still hunting dragons through vale and gorge,

In the memory of the Bow Bells chime. And though he march with a mountain-gun He wears the Cross of the Virgin s Son.

And here St. Andrew, a sailorman, Beholds the village he used to know

Before he came to his Highland clan And saw the heather s unending glow.

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