Summer In England, 1914

On London fell a clearer light;                 Caressing pencils of the sun          Defined the distances, the white                 Houses transfigured one by one,          The "long, unlovely street" impearled.          O what a sky has walked the world!          Most happy year!    And out of town                 The hay was prosperous, and the wheat;          The silken harvest climbed the down;                 Moon after moon was heavenly-sweet          Stroking the bread within the sheaves,          Looking twixt apples and their leaves.          And while this rose made round her cup,                 The armies died convulsed.    And when          This chaste young silver sun went up                 Softly, a thousand shattered men,          One wet corruption, heaped the plain,          After a league-long throb of pain.          Flower following tender flower; and birds,                 And berries; and benignant skies          Made thrive the serried flocks and herds.-                 Yonder are men shot through the eyes.                                  Love, hide thy face          From mans unpardonable race.      * * * * *          Who said "No man hath greater love than this,                 To die to serve his friend?"          So these have loved us all unto the end.                 Chide thou no more, O thou unsacrificed!          The soldier dying dies upon a kiss,                 The very kiss of Christ.