<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">Wings in the Night</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">Now</span> in the soft spring midnight</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">There's rush of wings and whirr,</p><p class="line">Birds flying softly, swiftly;</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The night's a-flutter, a-stir.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Home by the bitter seas,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">They have sped home together.</p><p class="line">So glad to be coming home</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">To the grey hills, the grey weather.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Calling and calling softly</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">One lights by the window-pane:</p><p class="line">The rook, weary with building,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Turns to his sleep again.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Ere ever the moor-hens wake</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And the wild duck come in,</p><p class="line">The birds are about the house</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">With a long call and thin.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">They have wakened the wood-pigeon</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">To make her plaintive moan,</p><p class="line">The wood-pigeon lamenting</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">For sorrows not her own.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Oh, they are never birds,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">But souls of men on the wind,</p><p class="line">Seeking the mother's breast,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The heart that is soft and kind.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Souls of the Irish dead,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Flown from the fields of slaughter,</p><p class="line">Home to the mother's arms</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Over the wild grey water.</p></div></body></html> · Great War