A treasury of war poetry, British and American poems of the world war, 1914-1919/The Steeple

by Patrick Reginald Chalmers

THE STEEPLE

[Reprinted by permission of the Proprietors of Punch.]

THERE'S mist in the hollows,
There's gold on the tree,
And South go the swallows
Away over sea.

They home in our steeple
That climbs in the wind,
And, parson and people,
We welcome them kind.

The steeple was set here
In 1266;
If William could get here
He'd burn it to sticks.

He'd burn it for ever,
Bells, belfry and vane,
That swallows would never
Come back there again.

He'd bang down their perches
With cannon and gun,
For churches are churches,
And William's a Hun.

So—mist in the hollow
And leaf falling brown—
Ere home comes the swallow
May William be down!

And high stand the steeples
From Lincoln to Wells
For parsons and peoples,
For birds and for bells!

Patrick R. Chalmers