<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">The Crown</h1><p class="byline"> HELEN COMBES <br xmlns:exist="http://exist.sourceforge.net/NS/exist" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"/><span class="smallcaps">IN Leslie's Weekly</span></p><div class="stanza"><p class="line">WRITE us your verse, oh, soldier, tell us the grim, red tale,</p><p class="line">Learned on the field of battle, where bullets fell like hail.</p><p class="line">Pen us the ghastly story, of thousands of slaughtered men,</p><p class="line">Till our souls are sick with horror. And then, oh, soldier, then,</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Tell us in tender accents, how men with hearts of gold</p><p class="line">Succored their wounded brothers; stripped in the biting cold</p><p class="line">To cover the dead and dying. Give us our faith again,</p><p class="line">Our belief in a God Almighty, in a Brotherhood of Man.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Paint us a canvas, soldier, a picture of fire and flame!</p><p class="line">Men, mad with the lust of killing, playing their grisly game!</p><p class="line">Show us the dead-strewn hillsides, guarding the blood-drenched plain,</p><p class="line">A picture of war's grim horrors. And then, oh, soldier, then,</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Draw is the white-capped nurses, doctors with skilful hands,</p><p class="line">Counting their lives as nothing when human need demands</p><p class="line">All that they have to offer. Paint us the women and men</p><p class="line">Who bring the joy of living back to our hearts again.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Sing us a song, oh, soldier, chant in a martial strain,</p><p class="line">Those who have died in battle, those who come home again.</p><p class="line">Call us the mothers of heroes, call us the mothers of men,</p><p class="line">Till our hearts are torn and bleeding. And then, oh, soldier, then,</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Play us in minor cadence, a harp with a tautened string,</p><p class="line">Set to a heavenly music, the songs the angels sing,</p><p class="line">Of a world by Love safeguarded, where wars shall ever cease,</p><p class="line">Sing us at last oh, soldier, the Song of Eternal Peace. </p></div></body></html> · Great War