<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">The Perfect Playmate</h1><h1 align="center" class="head"><em>Roger Charles Noel Bellingham. Before Ypres, March 4th, 1915</em></h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">The</span> Perfect Playmate, whither does he stray</p><p class="line">That now no more his feet come up this way</p><p class="line">That rang so blithe upon the nursery floor?</p><p class="line">Wild games and laughter! Now the little son</p><p class="line">Listens and longs, and his small world's undone.</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:%">The Perfect Playmate will return no more.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Who else made holidays of rainy days?</p><p class="line">Who told such marvels by the firelight blaze?</p><p class="line">King of misrule when Christmas frosts were hoar.</p><p class="line">But now the black-gowned mother's tears will flow</p><p class="line">Whether her little son be good or no.</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:%">The Perfect Playmate will return no more.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Who built the sands, dug deep, was never loth</p><p class="line">Nor ever tired: was strong enough for both:</p><p class="line">Home on his shoulders a small drowsy head bore;</p><p class="line">Was ever smiling. The boy keeps apart</p><p class="line">A gay young smiling father in his heart.</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:%">The Perfect Playmate will return no more!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">No more, no more! Himself a boy he goes</p><p class="line">Beyond the uttermost peaks, the eternal snows:</p><p class="line">Light on his young brown head from an open door.</p><p class="line">His youth unwithered, smiling all the way,</p><p class="line">Into the land of youth, the Spring of Day.</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:%">The Perfect Playmate will return no more.</p></div></body></html> · Great War