<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="" class="head">The Nurse</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">A year</span> before the war God sent</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And took her from her tender task,</p><p class="line">Now that we know His kind intent</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Nor why, nor wherefore, do we ask.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">He saw the dreadful, glorious war,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And in what scourged and bitter strait</p><p class="line">The young souls thronging from afar</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Should fall and faint at Heaven's gate.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Red wounds for to be staunched and healed</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And broken things to be made new;</p><p class="line">The crushed sheaves of the battlefield,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Drenched with a dark and bitter dew.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Such weariness to put to bed,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Such heaviness to be made glad,</p><p class="line">Such younglings to be comforted</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Before their mothers came, she had.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Soft hands to make rough pillows smooth,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">A passionate kindness for all pain</p><p class="line">Were hers-God called her home in ruth</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And pity for His broken men.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">She plies her lovely business,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Goes hither and thither like a light.</p><p class="line">To yours, to mine, she may give ease;</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">A King's nurse now goes clad in white.</p></div></body></html> · Great War