him, blindfold and alone.
SHOCK
My name, my speech, my self I had forgot.
My wife and children came--I knew them not.
I died. My Mother followed. At her call
And on her bosom I remembered all.
A GRAVE NEAR CAIRO
Gods of the Nile, should this stout fellow here
Get out--get out! He knows not shame nor fear.
PELICANS IN THE WILDERNESS
(A GRAVE NEAR HALFA)
The blown sand heaps on me, that none may learn
Where I am laid for whom my children grieve....
O wings that beat at dawning, ye return
Out of the desert to your young at eve!
THE FAVOUR
Death favoured me from the first, well knowing I could not endure
To wait on him day by day. He quitted my betters and came
Whistling over the fields, and, when he had made all sure,
'Thy line is at end,' he said, 'but at least I have saved its
name.'
THE BEGINNER
On the first hour of my first day
In the front trench I fell.
(Children in boxes at a play
Stand up to watch it well.)
R. A. F. (AGED EIGHTEEN)
Laughing through clouds, his milk-teeth still unshed,
Cities and men he smote from overhead.
His deaths delivered, he returned to play
Childlike, with childish things now put away.
THE REFINED MAN
I was of delicate mind. I went aside for my needs,
Disdaining the common office. I was seen from afar and killed....
How is this matter for mirth? Let each man be judged by his deeds
_I have paid my price to live with myself on the terms that I
willed._
NATIVE WATER-CARRIER (M. E. F.)
Prometheus brought down fire to men.
This brought up water.
The Gods are jealous--now, as then,
They gave no quarter.
BOMBED IN LONDON
On land and sea I strove with anxious care
To escape conscription. It was in the air!
THE SLEEPY SENTINEL
Faithless the watch that I kept: now I have none to keep.
I was slain because I slept: now I am slain I sleep.
Let no man reproach me again, whatever watch is unkept--
I sleep because I am slain. They slew me because I slept.
BATTERIES OUT OF AMMUNITION
If any mourn us in the workshop, say
We died because the shift kept holiday.
COMMON FORM
If any question why we died,
Tell them, because our fathers lied.
A DEAD STATESMAN
I could not dig; I dared not rob:
Therefore I lied to pleas
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