The Death-Bed

He drowsed and was aware of silence heaped     Round him, unshaken as the steadfast walls;     Aqueous like floating rays of amber light,     Soaring and quivering in the wings of sleep, -     Silence and safety; and his mortal shore     Lipped by the inward, moonless waves of death.     Some one was holding water to his mouth.     He swallowed, unresisting; moaned and dropped     Through crimson gloom to darkness; and forgot     The opiate throb and ache that was his wound.     Water - calm, sliding green above the weir;     Water - a sky-lit alley for his boat,     Bird-voiced, and bordered with reflected flowers     And shaken hues of summer: drifting down,     He dipped contented oars, and sighed, and slept.     Night, with a gust of wind, was in the ward,     Blowing the curtain to a glimmering curve.     Night. He was blind; he could not see the stars     Glinting among the wraiths of wandering cloud;     Queer blots of colour, purple, scarlet, green,     Flickered and faded in his drowning eyes.     Rain; he could hear it rustling through the dark;     Fragrance and passionless music woven as one;     Warm rain on drooping roses; pattering showers     That soak the woods; not the harsh rain that sweeps     Behind the thunder, but a trickling peace     Gently and slowly washing life away.             *        *        *        *        *     He stirred, shifting his body; then the pain     Leaped like a prowling beast, and gripped and tore     His groping dreams with grinding claws and fangs.     But some one was beside him; soon he lay     Shuddering because that evil thing had passed.     And Death, who'd stepped toward him, paused and stared.     Light many lamps and gather round his bed.     Lend him your eyes, warm blood, and will to live.     Speak to him; rouse him; you may save him yet.     He's young; he hated war; how should he die     When cruel old campaigners win safe through?     But Death replied: "I choose him." So he went,     And there was silence in the summer night;     Silence and safety; and the veils of sleep.     Then, far away, the thudding of the guns.