<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">Sounds By Night</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">I hear the dull, low thunder of the guns</p><p class="line">Beyond the hills that doze uneasily,</p><p class="line">A sullen doomful growl that ever runs</p><p class="line">From end to end of the heavy freighted sky ;</p><p class="line">A friend of mine writes, squatted on the floor,</p><p class="line">And scrapes by yellow spluttering candle light.</p><p class="line">" Ah ! hush ! " he breathes, and gazes at the door</p><p class="line">That creeks on rusty hinge, in pale affright.</p><p class="line">(No words spoke he, nor I, for well we knew</p><p class="line">What rueful things these sounds did tell.)</p><p class="line">A pause--I hear the trees sway sighing thro'</p><p class="line">The gloom, like dismal moan of hollow knell,</p><p class="line">Then out across the dark, and startling me</p><p class="line">Bursts forth a laugh, a shout of drunken glee!</p></div></body></html> · Great War