Page:More songs by the fighting men, soldier poets, second series, 1917.djvu/135

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R. HOWARD SPRING

Corporal, A.S.C., France

Hic Jacet

UNRECORDED and unsung,
Lay his body in the clay;
Buckler broken, sword unslung,
Done the friendly light of day,
Done the song of birds in May,
Praising life with flame-touched tongue.


Lay his body in the clay;
Sing no song of joy or sorrow;
Fled the dream of yesterday,
Dead the dawning of to-morrow.
He no more will give or borrow
'Mid the dwellers of the day.


Those who knew him may forget him,
Those who never knew remember;
Woman, thou who didst beget him,
And with tenderness beset him,
See him lie amid the clay.
O let him who will, remember!

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