<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">Two Sonnets</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="subhead">I</p><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">Saints</span> have adored the lofty soul of you.</p><p class="line">Poets have whitened at your high renown.</p><p class="line">We stand among the many millions who</p><p class="line">Do hourly wait to pass your pathway down.</p><p class="line">You, so familiar, once were strange: we tried</p><p class="line">To live as of your presence unaware.</p><p class="line">But now in every road on every side</p><p class="line">We see your straight and steadfast signpost there.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">I think it like that signpost in my land</p><p class="line">Hoary and tall, which pointed me to go</p><p class="line">Upward, into the hills, on the right hand,</p><p class="line">Where the mists swim and the winds shriek and blow,</p><p class="line">A homeless land and friendless, but a land</p><p class="line">I did not know and that I wished to know.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="subhead">II</p><p class="line">Such, such is Death: no triumph: no defeat:</p><p class="line">Only an empty pail, a slate rubbed clean,</p><p class="line">A merciful putting away of what has been.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And this we know: Death is not Life effete,</p><p class="line">Life crushed, the broken pail. We who have seen</p><p class="line">So marvellous things know well the end not yet.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Victor and vanquished are a-one in death:</p><p class="line">Coward and brave: friend, foe. Ghosts do not say,</p><p class="line">"Come, what was your record when you drew breath?"</p><p class="line">But a big blot has hid each yesterday</p><p class="line">So poor, so manifestly incomplete.</p><p class="line">And your bright Promise, withered long and sped,</p><p class="line">Is touched, stirs, rises, opens and grows sweet</p><p class="line">And blossoms and is you, when you are dead.</p></div><p class="byline">Charles Hamilton Sorley</p><p> June 12, 1915 </p></body></html> · Great War