<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">Afterward</h1><p class="byline"> CHARLES HANSON TOWNE <br xmlns:exist="http://exist.sourceforge.net/NS/exist" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"/><span class="smallcaps">IN The New York Tribune</span></p><div class="stanza"><p class="line">THE sick man said: "I pray I shall not die </p><p class="line">Before this tumult which now rocks the earth </p><p class="line">Shall cease. I dread far journeyings to God </p><p class="line">Ere I have heard the final shots of war, </p><p class="line">And learned the outcome of this holocaust."</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Yet one night, while the guns still roared and flashed, </p><p class="line">His spirit left his body; left the earth </p><p class="line">Which he had loved in sad, disastrous days, </p><p class="line">And sped to heav'n amid the glittering stars </p><p class="line">And the white splendor of the quiet moon.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">One instant--and a hundred years rushed by! </p><p class="line">And he, a new immortal, found his way </p><p class="line">Among the great celestial hills of God. </p><p class="line">Then suddenly one memory of earth </p><p class="line">Flashed like a meteor's flame across his mind.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">One instant--and another hundred years! </p><p class="line">And even the dream of that poor little place </p><p class="line">Which he had known was lost in greater spheres </p><p class="line">Through which he whirled; and old remembrances </p><p class="line">Were but as flecks of dust blown down the night; </p><p class="line">And nothing mattered, save that suns and moons </p><p class="line">Swung in the ether for unnumbered worlds </p><p class="line">High above the pebble of the earth. </p></div></body></html> · Great War