I used to scull; and sit and swear
While wasps attacked my bread and jam
Those summer evenings on the Cam.
(O crispy English cottage-loaves
Baked in ovens, not in stoves!
O white unsalted English butter
O satisfaction none can utter!) ...

To think that while those joys I knew
In Cambridge, I did not know you.
_July_ 1915.

TO THE OXFORD MEN IN THE WAR

Often, on afternoons grey and sombre,
When clouds lie low and dark with rain,
A random bell strikes a chord familiar
And I hear the Oxford chimes again.
Never I see a swift stream running
Cold and full from shore to shore,
But I think of Isis, and remember
The leaping boat and the throbbing oar.

O my brothers, my more than brothers--
Lost and gone are those days indeed:
Where are the bells, the gowns, the voices,
All that made us one blood and breed?
Gone--and in many an unknown pitfall
You have swinked, and died like men--
And here I sit in a quiet chamber
Writing on paper with a pen.

O my brothers, my more than brothers--
Big, intolerant, gallant boys!
Going to war as into a boatrace,
Full of laughter and fond of noise!
I can imagine your smile: how eager,
Nervous for the suspense to be done--
And I remember the Iffley meadows,
The crew alert for the starting gun.

Old grey city, O dear grey city,
How young we were, and how close to Truth!
We envied no one, we hated no one,
All was magical to our youth.
Still, in the hall of the Triple Roses,
The cannel casts its ruddy span,
And still the garden gate discloses
The message _Manners Makyth Man_.

Then I recall that an Oxford college,
Setting a stone for those who have died,
Nobly remembered all her children--
Even those on the German side.
That was Oxford! and that was England!
Fight your enemy, fight him square;
But in justice, honour, and pity
Even the enemy has his share.
_November_ 1916.

FOR THE PRESENT TIME

"If the trumpet speak with an uncertain sound,
Who shall prepare himself for the battle?"

In all this time of agony
How does this mighty nation drift:
Our blood is red upon the sea,
The foe is merciless and swift.
We doubt, we sway,
And day by day
Our hearts are thicker with distrust....
We would, shoul