Page:A treasury of war poetry, British and American poems of the world war, 1914-1919.djvu/179

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.

REFLECTIONS
179

Tower of Ypres, a little slept your glory,
Lips again are busy with your name,
Ypres again is famous in our story,
Ypres of Flanders, wrapt in blood and flame—
Here the spring song,
There black ruin, hate and death and wrong.


Dear grey Sussex town, your childlike beauty,
Passing price and more desired than gold,
Speaks to English souls of love, and duty
Faithful in the little wars of old—
In our hearts still
Live your dreaming fens, your bastioned hill.

April, 1917.


A SUMMER MORNING

THE summer meads are fair with daisy-snow,
White as the dove's wing, flawless as the foam
On the brown beaches where the breakers comb
When the long Trades their morning bugles blow;
And over all there is a golden glow,
For the sun sits ascendant in the dome;
And smoke-wreaths rise from many a cottage home
Where there is peace, and joy's full overflow.


This is our heritage, but what of those
Who crouch where Yser's sad, ensanguined tide
Winds with its sluggish crescents, toward the sea;
Where Termonde bells are silent, and the wide
And stricken leagues of Flemish land disclose
The ruthless wrong, the piteous agony!