<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">A Portrait</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">WALKING among men like a phantom,</p><p class="line">With vacant eyes and listless air,</p><p class="line">Unmarked, befriended, jeered at, laughed at,</p><p class="line">Only smiling in reply</p><p class="line">And drawing into self again</p><p class="line">Like a sensitive snail within its shell;</p><p class="line">Outwardly complaisant, satisfied, serene;</p><p class="line">Inwardly, ah! inwardly,</p><p class="line">A racked and tortured desert</p><p class="line">Empty of everything but dreams--</p><p class="line">Desires, ambitions,--dreams that come to naught</p><p class="line">But leave the mind limp, exhausted,</p><p class="line">Till it sees the world and life</p><p class="line">Labelled with " Hopeless."</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">A ship without a compass</p><p class="line">Floundering in dark and forlorn waters;</p><p class="line">Seeing no harbour,</p><p class="line">Knowing no goal,</p><p class="line">But buffeted on relentless winds</p><p class="line">That make the framework creak</p><p class="line">And the nails burst !</p><p class="line">A mind that grinds and grinds and grinds</p><p class="line">When there's nothing in it to grind,</p><p class="line">Gnawing itself away in frenzied toil,</p><p class="line">And producing--</p><p class="line">Nothing!</p></div></body></html> · Great War