Verses of a V.A.D. 5

Verses of a V.A.D. 5

Who shall avenge us for anguish unnamable,

Rivers of scarlet and crosses of grey,

Terror of night-time and blood-lust untamable,

Hate without pity where broken we lay?

 

 

 

 

WAR

 

(THE GREAT GERMAN OFFENSIVE, MARCH--MAY 1918)

 

 

A NIGHT of storm and thunder crashing by,

A bitter night of tempest and of rain--

Then calm at dawn beneath a wind-swept sky,

And broken flowers that will not bloom again.

 

An age of Death and Agony and Tears,

A cruel age of woe unguessed before--

Then peace to close the weary storm-wrecked years,

And broken hearts that bleed for evermore.

 

FRANCE.

 

 

 

 

THE LAST POST

 

 

THE stars are shining bright above the camps,

The bugle calls float skyward, faintly clear;

Over the hill the mist-veiled motor lamps

Dwindle and disappear.

 

The notes of day’s good-bye arise and blend

With the low murmurous hum from tree and sod,

And swell into that question at the end

They ask each night of God--

 

Whether the dead within the burial ground

Will ever overthrow their crosses grey,

And rise triumphant from each lowly mound

To greet the dawning day.

 

Whether the eyes which battle sealed in sleep

Will open to reveillé once again,

And forms, once mangled, into rapture leap,

Forgetful of their pain.

 

But still the stars above the camp shine on,

Giving no answer for our sorrow’s ease,

And one more day with the Last Post has gone

Dying upon the breeze.

 

ÉTAPLES, _1918_.

 

 

 

 

THE ASPIRANT

 

(A PLEA)

 

 

BECAUSE I dare to stand outside the gate

Of that high temple wherein Fame abides,

And loudly knock, too eager to await

Whate’er betides,

 

May God forgive, since He alone can see

The joys that others have but I must miss,

For how shall Compensation come to me

If not through this?