Georgian Poetry 1916-1917 Part 18

Alas! it meant not this, it meant not that: It meant that now the last time you and I Should look at the golden sky, And the dark fields large and flat, And smell the evening weather, And laugh and talk and wonder both together.

The last, last time. We nevermore should meet In France or London street, Or fields of home. The desolated s.p.a.ce Of life shall nevermore Be what it was before.

No one shall take your place.

No other face Can fill that empty frame.

There is no answer when we call your name.

We cannot hear your step upon the stair.

We turn to speak and find a vacant chair.

Something is broken which we cannot mend.

G.o.d has done more than take away a friend In taking you; for all that we have left Is bruised and irremediably bereft.

There is none like you. Yet not that alone Do we bemoan; But this; that you were greater than the rest, And better than the best.

O liberal heart fast-rooted to the soil, O lover of ancient freedom and proud toil, Friend of the gipsies and all wandering song, The forest's nursling and the favoured child Of woodlands wild-- O brother to the birds and all things free, Captain of liberty!

Deep in your heart the restless seed was sown; The vagrant spirit fretted in your feet; We wondered could you tarry long, And brook for long the cramping street, Or would you one day sail for sh.o.r.es unknown, And shake from you the dust of towns, and spurn The crowded market-place--and not return?

You found a sterner guide; You heard the guns. Then, to their distant fire, Your dreams were laid aside; And on that day, you cast your heart's desire Upon a burning pyre; You gave your service to the exalted need, Until at last from bondage freed, At liberty to serve as you loved best, You chose the n.o.blest way. G.o.d did the rest.

So when the spring of the world shall shrive our stain, After the winter of war, When the poor world awakes to peace once more, After such night of ravage and of rain, You shall not come again.

You shall not come to taste the old spring weather, To gallop through the soft untrampled heather, To bathe and bake your body on the gra.s.s.

We shall be there, alas!

But not with you. When Spring shall wake the earth, And quicken the scarred fields to the new birth, Our grief shall grow. For what can Spring renew More fiercely for us than the need of you?

That night I dreamt they sent for me and said That you were missing, 'missing, missing--dead': I cried when in the morning I awoke, And all the world seemed shrouded in a cloak; But when I saw the sun, And knew another day had just begun, I brushed the dream away, and quite forgot The nightmare's ugly blot.

So was the dream forgot. The dream came true.

Before the night I knew That you had flown away into the air For ever. Then I cheated my despair.

I said That you were safe--or wounded--but not dead.

Alas! I knew Which was the false and true.

And after days of watching, days of lead, There came the certain news that you were dead.

You had died fighting, fighting against odds, Such as in war the G.o.ds aethereal dared when all the world was young; Such fighting as blind Homer never sung, Nor Hector nor Achilles never knew, High in the empty blue.

High, high, above the clouds, against the setting sun, The fight was fought, and your great task was done.

Of all your brave adventures this the last The bravest was and best; Meet ending to a long embattled past, This swift, triumphant, fatal quest, Crowned with the wreath that never perisheth, And diadem of honourable death; Swift Death aflame with offering supreme And mighty sacrifice, More than all mortal dream; A soaring death, and near to Heaven's gate; Beneath the very walls of Paradise.

Surely with soul elate, You heard the destined bullet as you flew, And surely your prophetic spirit knew That you had well deserved that shining fate.

Here is no waste, No burning Might-have-been, No bitter after-taste, None to censure, none to screen, Nothing awry, nor anything misspent; Only content, content beyond content, Which hath not any room for betterment.

G.o.d, Who had made you valiant, strong and swift, And maimed you with a bullet long ago, And cleft your riotous ardour with a rift, And checked your youth's tumultuous overflow, Gave back your youth to you, And packed in moments rare and few Achievements manifold And happiness untold, And bade you spring to Death as to a bride, In manhood's ripeness, power and pride, And on your sandals the strong wings of youth.

He let you leave a name To shine on the entablatures of truth, For ever: To sound for ever in answering halls of fame.

For you soared onwards to that world which rags Of clouds, like tattered flags, Concealed; you reached the walls of chrysolite, The mansions white; And losing all, you gained the civic crown Of that eternal town, Wherein you pa.s.sed a rightful citizen Of the bright commonwealth ablaze beyond our ken.

Surely you found companions meet for you In that high place; You met there face to face Those you had never known, but whom you knew: Knights of the Table Round, And all the very brave, the very true, With chivalry crowned; The captains rare, Courteous and brave beyond our human air; Those who had loved and suffered overmuch, Now free from the world's touch.

And with them were the friends of yesterday, Who went before and pointed you the way; And in that place of freshness, light and rest, Where Lancelot and Tristram vigil keep Over their King's long sleep, Surely they made a place for you.

Their long-expected guest, Among the chosen few, And welcomed you, their brother and their friend, To that companionship which hath no end.

And in the portals of the sacred hall You hear the trumpet's call, At dawn upon the silvery battlement, Re-echo through the deep And bid the sons of G.o.d to rise from sleep, And with a shout to hail The sunrise on the city of the Grail: The music that proud Lucifer in h.e.l.l Missed more than all the joys that he forwent.

You hear the solemn bell At vespers, when the oriflammes are furled; And then you know that somewhere in the world, That shines far-off beneath you like a gem, They think of you, and when you think of them You know that they will wipe away their tears, And cast aside their fears; That they will have it so, And in no otherwise; That it is well with them because they know, With faithful eyes, Fixed forward and turned upwards to the skies, That it is well with you, Among the chosen few, Among the very brave, the very true.

HERBERT ASQUITH

THE VOLUNTEER

Here lies the clerk who half his life had spent Toiling at ledgers in a city grey, Thinking that so his days would drift away With no lance broken in life's tournament: Yet ever 'twixt the books and his bright eyes The gleaming eagles of the legions came, And hors.e.m.e.n, charging under phantom skies, Went thundering past beneath the oriflamme.

And now those waiting dreams are satisfied; From twilight to the halls of dawn he went; His lance is broken; but he lies content With that high hour, in which he lived and died.

And falling thus, he wants no recompense, Who found his battle in the last resort; Nor needs he any hea.r.s.e to bear him hence, Who goes to join the men of Agincourt.