Page:Poems that every child should know (ed. Burt, 1904).djvu/103

Rh Voice after voice caught up the song,

Until its tender passion

Rose like an anthem, rich and strong,—

Their battle-eve confession.

Dear girl, her name he dared not speak,

But, as the song grew louder,

Something upon the soldier's cheek

Washed off the stains of powder.

Beyond the darkening ocean burned

The bloody sunset's embers,

While the Crimean valleys learned

How English love remembers.

And once again a fire of hell

Rained on the Russian quarters,

With scream of shot, and burst of shell,

And bellowing of the mortars!

And Irish Nora's eyes are dim

For a singer, dumb and gory;

And English Mary mourns for him

Who sang of "Annie Laurie."

Sleep, soldiers! still in honoured rest

Your truth and valour wearing:

The bravest are the tenderest,—

The loving are the daring.

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