Page:The ways of war - Kettle - 1917.pdf/66

 In his Home Rule Finance, he says: "Home Rule may be a divorce between two administrations, it will be a marriage between two nations. You are in any case free to choose for your inspiration between alimony and matrimony, the emphasis in either case is on the last syllable."

Few think of him as a poet, and yet his poetry has as unique and distinguished a cachet as his prose. In political poetry and battle song he equalled the best. His "Epitaph on the House of Lords" ranks beside Chesterton's memorable poem on the same subject. His battle song entitled "The Last Crusade" embodies in perfect lyric form his vision of the war—

"Then lift the flag of the last Crusade! And fill the ranks of the Last Brigade! March on to the fields where the world's re-made, And the ancient Dreams come true!"

A sonnet written to his little daughter on the battlefield has been declared by a literary critic as sufficient to found the reputation of a poet.

"TO MY DAUGHTER BETTY, THE GIFT OF GOD.

"In wiser days, my darling rosebud, blown To beauty proud as was your mother's prime, In that desired, delayed, incredible time, "You'll ask why I abandoned you, my own, And the dear heart that was your baby throne, To dice with death. And, oh! they'll give you rhyme And reason: some will call the thing sublime, And some decry it in a knowing tone.