Page:More songs by the fighting men, soldier poets, second series, 1917.djvu/56

More Songs by the Fighting Men Then, as I laid my head upon the ground,

And waited there for dark night's close embrace,

I heard, far off, a murmuring, rumbling sound,

As if the earth groaned at her own disgrace;

It trembled on the breeze, swelled, and then died;

Again the branches rustled, and God sighed.

Sunset

IKE a vast forest on some distant plain,

Out in the west, dark, rounded clouds lay low

Upon the sea: o'er them, the sun's broad train—

The glories of the golden afterglow.

Gold, and then crimson: changing, through degrees

Of red and green, to fields of turquoise blue:

Then darker blue, that challenges the seas

To deeper darkness, as the storm-clouds do.

Then, when the stars gleamed faintly, blushing red

At their own eagerness: and as this feast

Of beauty seemed complete, and day was dead,

I turned my face, and looked toward the east.

There I saw that which made me hold my breath;

I'd thought the sunset fair: now met my sight, 52