Page:More songs by the fighting men, soldier poets, second series, 1917.djvu/28

More Songs by the Fighting Men What of the men who died

Stout-hearted and steadfast-eyed

For the good they might not share

And the goal to them denied?

For the lamp they strove to bear

Should light another's way,

And the boon that they might not share

Is the boon we hold to-day.

What of the god-like men

Who lie in the dust to-day

For the dreams that we hold so light

And the hope that we fling away?

Ah! shall we not vex their sleep,

We men of the lesser mould,

Who sully the name they bled to keep,

And the honour they died to hold?

A thousand ages ago

Man fought with the axe of stone

That the many might seize the thing they loved

From the few, and hold it alone.

For the will of the strong was law

And the right of the weak was death

When man was one with the beasts of the earth

And battled with them for breath.

24