<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">To Belgium in Exile</h1><p class="inline-note" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"> [Lines dedicated to one of her priests, by whose words they were prompted.] </p><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">Land</span> of the desolate, Mother of tears,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Weeping your beauty marred and torn,</p><p class="line">Your children tossed upon the spears,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Your altars rent, your hearths forlorn,</p><p class="line">Where Spring has no renewing spell,</p><p class="line">And Love no language save a long Farewell!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Ah, precious tears, and each a pearl,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Whose price -- for so in God we trust</p><p class="line">Who saw them fall in that blind swirl</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Of ravening flame and reeking dust --</p><p class="line">The spoiler with his life shall pay,</p><p class="line">When Justice at the last demands her Day.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">O tried and proved, whose record stands</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Lettered in blood too deep to fade,</p><p class="line">Take courage! Never in our hands</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Shall the avenging sword be stayed</p><p class="line">Till you are healed of all your pain,</p><p class="line">And come with Honour to your own again.</p></div><p class="byline">Owen Seaman</p><p> May 19, 1915 </p></body></html> · Great War