<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">The Messines Road</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="subhead">I</p><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">The</span> road that runs up to Messines</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Is double-locked with gates of fire,</p><p class="line">Barred with high ramparts, and between</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">The unbridged river, and the wire.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">None ever goes up to Messines,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">For Death lurks all about the town,</p><p class="line">Death holds the vale as his demesne,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">And only Death moves up and down.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="subhead">II</p><p class="line">Choked with wild weeds, and overgrown</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">With rank grass, all torn and rent</p><p class="line">By war's opposing engines, strewn</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">With débris from each day's event!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And in the dark the broken trees,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Whose arching boughs were once its shade,</p><p class="line">Grim and distorted, ghostly ease</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">In groans their souls vexed and afraid.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Yet here the farmer drove his cart,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Here friendly folk would meet and pass,</p><p class="line">Here bore the good wife eggs to mart</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">And old and young walked up to Mass.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Here schoolboys lingered in the way,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Here the bent packman laboured by,</p><p class="line">And lovers at the end o' the day</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Whispered their secret blushingly.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">A goodly road for simple needs,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">An avenue to praise and paint,</p><p class="line">Kept by fair use from wreck and weeds,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Blessed by the shrine of its own saint.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="subhead">III</p><p class="line">The road that runs up to Messines!</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Ah, how we guard it day and night!</p><p class="line">And how they guard it, who o'erween</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">A stricken people, with their might!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">But we shall go up to Messines</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Even thro' that fire-defended gate.</p><p class="line">Over and thro' all else between</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">And give the highway back its state.</p></div><p class="byline">J. E. Stewart</p></body></html> · Great War