The School At War

All night before the brink of death         In fitful sleep the army lay,     For through the dream that stilled their breath         Too gauntly glared the coming day.     But we, within whose blood there leaps         The fulness of a life as wide     As Avon's water where he sweeps         Seaward at last with Severn's tide,     We heard beyond the desert night         The murmur of the fields we knew,     And our swift souls with one delight         Like homing swallows Northward flew.     We played again the immortal games,         And grappled with the fierce old friends,     And cheered the dead undying names,         And sang the song that never ends;     Till, when the hard, familiar bell         Told that the summer night was late,     Where long ago we said farewell         We said farewell by the old gate.     "O Captains unforgot," they cried,         "Come you again or come no more,     Across the world you keep the pride,         Across the world we mark the score."