<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">To Our Fallen</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">Ye</span> sleepers, who will sing you?</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">We can but give our tears --</p><p class="line">Ye dead men, who shall bring you</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Fame in the coming years?</p><p class="line">Brave souls... but who remembers</p><p class="line">The flame that fired your embers? ...</p><p class="line">Deep, deep the sleep that holds you</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Who one time had no peers.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Yet maybe Fame's but seeming</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And praise you'd set aside,</p><p class="line">Content to go on dreaming,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Yea, happy to have died</p><p class="line">If of all things you prayed for --</p><p class="line">All things your valour paid for --</p><p class="line">One prayer is not forgotten,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">One purchase not denied.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">But God grants your dear England</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">A strength that shall not cease</p><p class="line">Till she have won for all the Earth</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">From ruthless men release,</p><p class="line">And made supreme upon her</p><p class="line">Mercy and Truth and Honour --</p><p class="line">Is this the thing you died for?</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Oh, Brothers, sleep in peace!</p></div><p class="byline">Robert Ernest Vernède</p></body></html> · Great War