Screaming gull and lark a-singing, Bubbling brook and booming sea, Church and cattle bells a-ringing Swell the ghostly melody; "Chalk and flint, Sirs, lie beneath ye, Mingling with our dust below! Chalk and flint, Sirs, they bequeath ye This our chant of long ago!" Chant of knight and chant of bowman, Chant of squire and chant of yeoman: _Kent and Sussex feared no foeman In the days of long ago_!
Hills that heed not Time or weather, Sussex down and Kentish lane, Roads that wind through marsh and heather Feel the mail-shod feet again; Chalk and flint their dead are giving-- Spectres grim and spectres bold-- Marching on to cheer the living With their battle-chant of old-- Chant of knight and chant of bowman, Chant of squire and chant of yeoman: _Witness Norman! Witness Roman! Kent and Sussex feared no foeman In the valiant days of old!_
_Reprinted by special permission of London "Punch"_
All night the tall trees overhead Are whispering to the stars; Their roots are wrapped about the dead And hide the hideous scars.
The tide of war goes rolling by, The legions sweep along; And daily in the summer sky The birds will sing their song.
No place is this for human tears, The time for tears is done; Transfigured in these awful years, The two worlds blend in one.
This boy had visions while in life Of stars on distant skies; So death came in the midst of strife A sudden, glad surprise.
He found the songs for which he yearned, Hopes that had mocked desire; His heart is resting now which burned With such consuming fire.
So down the ringing road we pass, And leave him where he fell, The guardian trees, the waving grass, The birds will love him well.
FREDERICK GEORGE SCOTT _From "In the Battle Silences"--By permission of the Author and The Musson Book Company, Limited, Toronto_
The naked earth is warm with Spring, And with green grass and bursting trees Leans to the sun's gaze glorying, And quivers in the sunny breeze; And Life is Colour and Warmth and Light, And a striving evermore for these; And he is dead who will not fight; And who dies fighting has increase.
The fighting man shall from the sun Take warmth, and life from the glowing earth; Speed with the light-foot winds to run, And with the trees to newer birth; And find, when fighting shall be done, Great rest, and fulness after dearth.