<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">The Beach Road by the Wood</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">I <span class="smallcaps">know</span> a beach road,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">A road where I would go,</p><p class="line">It runs up northward</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">From Cooden Bay to Hoe;</p><p class="line">And there, in the High Woods,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Daffodils grow.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And whoever walks along there</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Stops short and sees,</p><p class="line">By the moist tree-roots</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">In a clearing of the trees,</p><p class="line">Yellow great battalions of them,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Blowing in the breeze.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">While the spring sun brightens,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">And the dull sky clears,</p><p class="line">They blow their golden trumpets,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Those golden trumpeteers!</p><p class="line">They blow their golden trumpets</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">And they shake their glancing spears.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And all the rocking beech-trees</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Are bright with buds again,</p><p class="line">And the green and open spaces</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Are greener after rain,</p><p class="line">And far to southward one can hear</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">The sullen, moaning rain.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Once before I die</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">I will leave the town behind,</p><p class="line">The loud town, the dark town</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">That cramps and chills the mind,</p><p class="line">And I'll stand again bareheaded there</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">In the sunlight and the wind.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Yes, I shall stand</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Where as a boy I stood</p><p class="line">Above the dykes and levels</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">In the beach road by the wood,</p><p class="line">And I'll smell again the sea breeze,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">Salt and harsh and good.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And there shall rise to me</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">From that consecrated ground</p><p class="line">The old dreams, the lost dreams</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">That years and cares have drowned:</p><p class="line">Welling up within me</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">And above me and around</p><p class="line">The song that I could never sing</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:4%">And the face I never found.</p></div><p class="byline">Geoffrey Howard</p></body></html> · Great War