<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">The Volunteer</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">Here</span> lies a clerk who half his life had spent</p><p class="line">Toiling at ledgers in a city grey,</p><p class="line">Thinking that so his days would drift away</p><p class="line">With no lance broken in life's tournament:</p><p class="line">Yet ever 'twixt the books and his bright eyes</p><p class="line">The gleaming eagles of the legions came,</p><p class="line">And horsemen, charging under phantom skies,</p><p class="line">Went thundering past beneath the oriflamme.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And now those waiting dreams are satisfied;</p><p class="line">From twilight to the halls of dawn he went;</p><p class="line">His lance is broken; but he lies content</p><p class="line">With that high hour, in which he lived and died.</p><p class="line">And falling thus he wants no recompense,</p><p class="line">Who found his battle in the last resort;</p><p class="line">Nor needs he any hearse to bear him hence,</p><p class="line">Who goes to join the men of Agincourt.</p></div><p class="byline">Herbert Asquith</p></body></html> · Great War