Page:Poems of the Great War - Cunliffe.djvu/195

 ��HIS ONLY WAY

I STOOD to-day high on the Downs And talked long with a shepherd lad ;

I found him pondering by his sheep, Motionless, staring-eyed, and sad.

But, leaning on his Pyecombe crook — Long polished by his father's hand —

He told, with slow-tongued eagerness, This love-tale of his Sussex land :

"Me and my mate, Dick, loved a girl. But he was always down at plough,

And in and out the village, like, And — well, he 'listed, anyhow ;

"While I bides up here 'long me sheep;

And our girl, though she liked us two Equal it seemed, she took his ring —

As, sure, she'd right enough to do.

"Well, Dick he fought and met his death, Somewheres in Flanders, so 'tis said ;

And I can't go to her, I feels.

Because of Dick there lying dead.

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