Page:More songs by the fighting men, soldier poets, second series, 1917.djvu/122

More Songs by the Fighting Men As lies your own in beauteous symmetry

Behind, beyond the rise of the distant hill

Where finds the daylight first all that of me

Does make the man, your son, heart, mind and will.

Then how must I, with firm-held reins, with bit

Drawn hard, hold in my spirited arrogance,

The lust of youth, the usufruct of it,

The power impetuous, seeking ever a chance

To break away into loose licence, when

'Tis needed so, to praise you, by my pen!

There is not beauty enough in the whole world—

Could it be brought obedient to my will—

No hues of budding dawn, no colours furled

After rich sunset, in the west, dim, still;

No melodies of brooks or birds, no tunes

Which breezes wake among green leaves that lay

Upon some summer's breathing breast—nor runes

Around a lonely lake which ripples play,

Falling on quiet shores—nor voice of shimmering ocean

Whose anger sleepeth. Nay on all the earth

There is no beauty stirring sweet emotion

To paint, to sing, to monument thy worth:—

Nothing that can outbid in all of this

My pain-fraught joy feeling thy prideful kiss.

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