<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">The Vision</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">An</span> average man was Private Flynn,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Good stuff for soldiering, no doubt;</p><p class="line">Troublesome when the drink was in,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">A quiet lad when it was out.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Too fond of gaming and the girls,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And given to "language" that would fright</p><p class="line">His mother dreaming of his curls</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And his soft boyish ways at night.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">He had forgotten how to pray</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The way she taught him at her knees.</p><p class="line">Her prayers ran like a river all day,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And while she slept gave little ease.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">The Calvary, by Souchez, holds</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Wide arms to clasp the new-made beds,</p><p class="line">Where lie, nor toss their browns and golds,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The precious, the beloved heads.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Flynn's Captain, who had proved a friend</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">At times a friend is needed most,</p><p class="line">Slept there, and comfort was at end</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Because Flynn's faithful friend was lost.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">"Gassed." O'er that twisted grace and dumb,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Flynn swore a choking oath to give</p><p class="line">No quarter when the day should come</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And fed his hate to thrive and live.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Lest that his Captain feel forgot,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">At night when all the trenches slept,</p><p class="line">Flynn tended like a garden plot</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The grave o'er which the night-dews wept.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">He raised a little cross of sticks,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Pansies, forget-me-nots, amid;</p><p class="line">Over him the gaunt Crucifix</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Shed comfort -- or he thought it did.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Rank disobedience! No one knew</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">How Flynn, so devil-may-care and brave,</p><p class="line">Courted destruction just to do</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">A little gardening on a grave.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">One night the shells lit all the dark,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Burst in a million splinters of flame;</p><p class="line">At morn, before the singing lark,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Flynn to his tender office came.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">He smoothed the clay where it was rough,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">With his hard tender hand he drew</p><p class="line">As 'twere a quilt of silken stuff</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Between the sleeper and the dew.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">All done, he stretched his six foot four,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And yawning, in the dawn's pale glow,</p><p class="line">Bent to the Crucifix once more,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Saluted ere he turned to go.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Then here's the marvel -- the dead Christ</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Opened His Eyes, the very Eyes</p><p class="line">That Mary loved, which through a mist</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The saved souls see in Paradise.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Flynn, like Elijah, caught to Heaven!</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Plain Private Flynn -- saw God revealed!</p><p class="line">Unto a simple soldier given</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The secret heart of Heaven unsealed.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Could he go back to common joys</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">After the joys of Heaven were won?</p><p class="line">The quietness was rent with noise,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The death sprang from the hidden gun.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">They shot Flynn's eyes out. That was good.</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Eyes that saw God are better blind.</p><p class="line">Flynn muses on beatitude,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">His empty eye-sockets behind.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">In a bare London hospital ward</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">He smiles and prays the live-long day.</p><p class="line">He who has seen the living Lord</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Has Light upon the darkest way.</p></div></body></html> · Great War