<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">Christ in Flanders</h1><p class="byline">L. W.<br xmlns:exist="http://exist.sourceforge.net/NS/exist" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"/><span class="smallcaps"> In the Spectator</span></p><div class="stanza"><p class="line">WE had forgotten You, or very nearly--</p><p class="line">You did not seem to touch us very nearly--</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Of course we thought about You now and then; </p><p class="line">Especially in any time of trouble--</p><p class="line">We knew that You were good in time of trouble--</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">But we are very ordinary men.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And there were always other things to think of--</p><p class="line">There's lots of things a man has got to think of--</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">His work, his home, his pleasure, and his wife; </p><p class="line">And so we only thought of You on Sunday--</p><p class="line">Sometimes, perhaps, not even on a Sunday--</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Because there's always lots to fill one's life.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And, all the while, in the street or lane or byway--</p><p class="line">In country lane, in city street, or byway--</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">You walked among us, and we did not see.</p><p class="line">Your feet were bleeding as You walked our pavements--</p><p class="line">How<em> did</em> we miss Your Footprints on our pavements--</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Can there be other folk as blind as we?</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><em>Now</em> we remember; over here in Flanders</p><p class="line">(It isn't strange to think of You in Flanders)--</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">This hideous warfare seems to make things clear.</p><p class="line">We never thought about You much in England--</p><p class="line">But now that we are far away from England--</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">We have no doubts, we know that You are here.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">You helped us pass the jest along the trenches--</p><p class="line">Where, in cold blood, we waited in the trenches--</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">You touched its ribaldry and made it fine.</p><p class="line">You stood beside us in our pain and weakness--</p><p class="line">We're glad to think You understand our weakness--</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Somehow it seems to help us not to whine.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">We think about You kneeling in the Garden--</p><p class="line">Ah! God! the agony of that dread Garden--</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">We know You prayed for us upon the Cross.</p><p class="line">If anything could make us glad to bear it--</p><p class="line">'Twould he the knowledge that You willed to bear it--</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Pain--death--the uttermost of human loss.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Ihouh we forgot You--You will not forget us--</p><p class="line">We feel so sure that You will not forget us--</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">But stay with us until this dream is past. </p><p class="line">And so we ask for courage, strength, and pardon--</p><p class="line">Especially, I think, we ask for pardon--</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And that You'll stand beside us to the last. </p></div></body></html> · Great War