Page:Marching Men - War Verses (1917).pdf/19



HEN first he put the khaki on
 * He tried with careful art

To seem blasé and casual
 * And play the proper part,

But it was plain as plain could be
 * He was a child at heart.

Although he talked in knowing terms
 * Of what "the boys" had done,

Likewise of ammunition tests,
 * And how to load a gun,

And bragged that in his stocking feet
 * He stood full six foot, one.

Yet all the while the child looked out
 * With mild appealing eyes,

Unconscious he was visible
 * Beneath the man's disguise,

Nor dreaming what the look evoked
 * In hearts grown mother-wise.

How could he know the sudden pang,
 * The stir of swift alarms,

The yearning prayer that innocence
 * Be kept from all that harms,

The inner reach of tenderness,
 * And cradling of soft arms?