<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="" class="head">The Welcome</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">We</span> will not banish them as they were lost,</p><p class="line">But in our daily talk their names be most,</p><p class="line">Nor from our laughter be they shut away.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">We shall tell over fond old stories of them</p><p class="line">When they were little and we leant above them</p><p class="line">Guarding from danger as God's angels may.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">They come no more as they were used to come,</p><p class="line">Yet in the quiet dawning and the gloam</p><p class="line">Whose eyes are in the shadow and whose smile</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Wavers and vanishes? Oh, is it you,</p><p class="line">Child, are you come, with darkness and the dew,</p><p class="line">To sit down and give comfort for a while?</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">To sit down as of old and lay your face</p><p class="line">On a poor heart you have left comfortless,</p><p class="line">To draw fond arms about your golden head,</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">So glad because you are not put away</p><p class="line">Out of familiar things of every day,</p><p class="line">Like a sad ghost dreaming that he is dead.</p></div></body></html> · Great War