Page:Poems of the Great War - Cunliffe.djvu/36

 10 LIEUT. HERBERT ASQUITH

��THE FALLEN SUBALTERN

The starshells float above, the bayonets glisten ; We bear our fallen friend without a sound ; Below the waiting legions lie and listen To us, who march upon their burial-ground.

Wound in the flag of England, here we lay him ; The guns will flash and thunder o'er the grave ; What other winding sheet should now array him, What other music should salute the brave ?

As goes the Sun-god in his chariot glorious, When all his golden banners are unfurled. So goes the soldier, fallen but victorious, And leaves behind a twilight in the world.

And those who come this way in days hereafter Will know that here a boy for England fell, Who looked at danger with the eyes of laughter. And on the charge his days were ended well.

One last salute ; the bayonets clash and glisten ; With arms reversed we go without a sound : One more has joined the men who lie and listen To us, who march upon their burial-ground.

— Herbert Asquith.

��1915.

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