Marching Men: War Verses/A Great White Company
A GREAT WHITE COMPANY.
A GREAT white company—
By Calvary's way they trod,
A great white company
Marching up to God.
Across the Vale of Many Tears,
Beyond the Hill of Pain they swept,
Their way was soft with fallen tears
Where widowed maid and mother wept.
And some were but as children are,
Still warm where mothering hands had pressed,
So young they had not travelled far
Beyond the hollow of the nest.
And some were tried and valorous men
Whose eyes had seen the hidden sin,
The whitened bones beside the den,
The fierce eye gleaming red within.
And some were singing as they went,
Full, clarion-clear their voices rang,
With Youth still in their hearts unspent
In wistful happiness they sang.
And all had plucked the deathless flower
That blows not in the fields of Time,
Had looked beyond the aging hour—
The dimming marge of mortal clime.
A great white company—
With faith their feet were shod,
A great white company
Marching up to God.