INCLUSIVE EDITION, 1885-1918 443
THE SLEEPY SENTINEL
Faithless the watch that I kept: now I have none to keep. I was slain because I slept: now I am slain I sleep. Let no man reproach me again, whatever watch is unkept I sleep because I am slain. They slew me because I slept.
BATTERIES OUT OF AMMUNITION
If any mourn us in the workshop, say We died because the shift kept holiday.
COMMON FORM
If any question why we died, Tell them, because our fathers lied.
A DEAD STATESMAN
I could not dig: I dared not rob: Therefore I lied to please the mob. Now all my lies are proved 'untrue And I must face the men I slew. What tale shall serve me here among Mine angry and defrauded young?
THE REBEL
If I had clamoured at Thy Gate
For gift of Life on Earth, And, thrusting through the souls that wait,
Flung headlong into birth Even then, even then, for gin and snare
About my pathway spread, Lord, I had mocked Thy thoughtful care
Before I joined the Dead! But now? ... I was beneath Thy Hand
Ere yet the Planets came. And now though Planets pass, I stand
The witness to Thy shame.