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JOHN EUGENE CROMBIE
Captain, Gordon Highlanders
(Killed in Action, St. George's Day, 1917)
The Dream-path
WALKING my dream-paved road on the Hill of Desire
I saw beneath me the City of Quiet Delight;
The warming rays from each home-welcoming fire
Wove a pattern of gold on the velvet curtain of night.
The scent from the hill's rank grass put desire in my soul
To attain to the City below in the Valley of Hope,
But my grey path led beyond the horizon's roll,
Binding my feet in the web of a dream-made rope.
Reluctant, I followed the path, where I knew was Pain,
The distance glared with a furnace glow in the sky,
And the voice of the sea and the splashing of tropic rain
Were the hiss of the steam from untaught Machinery.
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