<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">Edith Cavell</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">She</span> was binding the wounds of her enemies when they came --</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The lint in her hand unrolled.</p><p class="line">They battered the door with their rifle-butts, crashed it in:</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">She faced them gentle and bold.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">They haled her before the judges where they sat</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">In their places, helmet on head.</p><p class="line">With question and menace the judges assailed her, "Yes,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">I have broken your law," she said.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">"I have tended the hurt and hidden the hunted, have done</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">As a sister does to a brother,</p><p class="line">Because of a law that is greater than you have made,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Because I could do none other.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">"Deal as you will with me. This is my choice to the end,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">To live in the life I vowed."</p><p class="line">"She is self-confessed," they cried; "she is self-condemned.</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">She shall die, that the rest may be cowed."</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">In the terrible hour of the dawn, when the veins are cold,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">They led her forth to the wall.</p><p class="line">"I have loved my land," she said, "but it is not enough:</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Love requires of me all.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">"I will empty my heart of bitterness, hating none."</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And sweetness filled her brave</p><p class="line">With a vision of understanding beyond the hour</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">That knelled to the waiting grave.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">They bound her eyes, but she stood as if she shone.</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The rifles it was that shook</p><p class="line">When the hoarse command rang out. They could not endure</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">That last, that defenceless look.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And the officer strode and pistolled her surely, ashamed</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">That men, seasoned in blood,</p><p class="line">Should quail at a woman, only a woman, --</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">As a flower stamped in the mud.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And now that the deed was securely done, in the night</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">When none had known her fate,</p><p class="line">They answered those that had striven for her, day by day:</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">"It is over, you come too late."</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And with many words and sorrowful-phrased excuse</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Argued their German right</p><p class="line">To kill, most legally; hard though the duty be,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The law must assert its might.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Only a woman! yet she had pity on them,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The victim offered slain</p><p class="line">To the gods of fear that they worship. Leave them there,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Red hands, to clutch their gain!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">She bewailed not herself, and we will bewail her not,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">But with tears of pride rejoice</p><p class="line">That an English soul was found so crystal-clear</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">To be the triumphant voice</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Of the human heart that dares adventure all</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">But live to itself untrue,</p><p class="line">And beyond all laws sees love as the light in the night,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">As the star it must answer to.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">The hurts she healed, the thousands comforted -- these</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Make a fragrance of her fame.</p><p class="line">But because she stept to her star right on through death</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">It is Victory speaks her name.</p></div><p class="byline">Laurence Binyon</p></body></html> · Great War