Epitaphs Of The War

EQUALITY OF SACRIFICE     A. I was a Have. B. I was a have-not.     (Together.) What hast thou given which I gave not?     A SERVANT     We were together since the War began.     He was my servant, and the better man.     A SON     My son was killed while laughing at some jest. I would I knew     What it was, and it might serve me in a time when jests are few.     AN ONLY SON     I have slain none except my Mother.     She (Blessing her slayer) died of grief for me.     EX-CLERK     Pity not! The Army gave     Freedom to a timid slave:     In which Freedom did he find     Strength of body, will, and mind:     By which strength he came to prove     Mirth, Companionship, and Love:     For which Love to Death he went:     In which Death he lies content.     THE WONDER     Body and Spirit I surrendered whole     To harsh Instructors, and received a soul . . .     If mortal man could change me through and through     From all I was, what may The God not do?     HINDU SEPOY IN FRANCE     This man in his own country prayed we know not to what Powers.     We pray Them to reward him for his bravery in ours.     THE COWARD     I could not look on Death, which being known,     Men led me to him, blindfold and alone.     SHOCK     My name, my speech, my self I had forgot.     My wife and children came, I knew them not.     I died. My Mother followed. At her call     And on her bosom I remembered all.     A GRAVE NEAR CAIRO     Gods of the Nile, should this stout fellow here     Get out, get out! He knows not shame nor fear.     PELICANS IN THE WILDERNESS     (A Grave Near Halfa)     The blown sand heaps on me, that none may learn     Where I am laid for whom my children grieve. . . .     O wings that beat at dawning, ye return     Out of the desert to your young at eve!     THE FAVOUR     Death favoured me from the first, well knowing I could not endure     To wait on him day by day. He quitted my betters and came     Whistling over the fields, and, when he had made all sure,     Thy line is at end, he said, but at least I have saved its name.     THE BEGINNER     On the first hour of my first day     In the front trench I fell.     (Children in boxes at a play     Stand up to watch it well.)     R.A.F. (AGED EIGHTEEN)     Laughing through clouds, his milk-teeth still unshed,     Cities and men he smote from overhead.     His deaths delivered, he returned to play     Childlike, with childish things now put away.     THE REFINED MAN     I was of delicate mind. I stepped aside for my needs,     Disdaining the common office. I was seen from afar and killed. . . .     How is this matter for mirth? Let each man be judged by his deeds.     I have paid my price to live with myself on the terms that I willed.     NATIVE WATER-CARRIER (M.E.F.)     Prometheus brought down fire to men.     This brought up water.     The Gods are jealous, now, as then,     Giving no quarter.     BOMBED IN LONDON     On land and sea I strove with anxious care     To escape conscription. It was in the air!     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.     THE OBEDIENT     Daily, though no ears attended,     Did my prayers arise.     Daily, though no fire descended     Did I sacrifice.     Though my darkness did not lift,     Though I faced no lighter odds,     Though the Gods bestowed no gift,             None the less,     None the less, I served the Gods!     A DRIFTER OFF TARENTUM     He from the wind-bitten north with ship and companions descended.     Searching for eggs of death spawned by invisible hulls.     Many he found and drew forth. Of a sudden the fishery ended     In flame and a clamorous breath not new to the eye-pecking gulls.     DESTROYERS IN COLLISION     For Fog and Fate no charm is found     To lighten or amend.     I, hurrying to my bride, was drowned,     Cut down by my best friend.     CONVOY ESCORT     I was a shepherd to fools     Causelessly bold or afraid.     They would not abide by my rules.     Yet they escaped. For I stayed.     UNKNOWN FEMALE CORPSE     Headless, lacking foot and hand,     Horrible I come to land.     I beseech all womens sons     Know I was a mother once.     RAPED AND REVENGED     One used and butchered me: another spied     Me broken, for which thing an hundred died.     So it was learned among the heathen hosts     How much a freeborn womans favour costs.     SALONIKAN GRAVE     I have watched a thousand days     Push out and crawl into night     Slowly as tortoises.     Now I, too, follow these.     It is fever, and not the fight,     Time, not battle, that slays.     THE BRIDEGROOM     Call me not false, beloved,     If, from thy scarce-known breast     So little time removed,     In other arms I rest.     For this more ancient bride     Whom coldly I embrace     Was constant at my side     Before I saw thy face.     Our marriage, often set,     By miracle delayed,     At last is consummate,     And cannot be unmade.     Live, then, whom Life shall cure.     Almost, of Memory,     And leave us to endure     Its immortality.     V. A. D. (MEDITERRANEAN)     Ah, would swift ships had never been, for then we neer had found,     These harsh gean rocks between, this little virgin drowned,     Whom neither spouse nor child shall mourn, but men she nursed through pain     And, certain keels for whose return the heathen look in vain.     ACTORS     On a Memorial Tablet in Holy Trinity Church,     Stratford-on-Avon     We counterfeited once for your disport     Mens joy and sorrow: but our day has passed.     We pray you pardon all where we fell short     Seeing we were your servants to this last.     JOURNALISTS     On a Panel in the Hall of the Institute of Journalists     We have served our day.