<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">The Living Victims. <br xmlns:exist="http://exist.sourceforge.net/NS/exist" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"/><span class="smallcaps">Fathers and Mothers of the Fallen</span></h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">O PIERCÈD hearts and empty eyes, </p><p class="line">I, seeing your great sacrifice, </p><p class="line">I, who no younger part can play,</p><p class="line">Just bless and thank you, night and day. </p><p class="line">Your faces, not the forms I meet, </p><p class="line">Make the procession of the street </p><p class="line">And in the anguished night I start </p><p class="line">'Tis you who take me by the heart.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Yet comfort find I in this thought :</p><p class="line">When God for man's Redemption wrought, </p><p class="line">And One must die, He chose the part </p><p class="line">Far sharper to the Father's heart, </p><p class="line">And gave His Son. O dearest You, </p><p class="line">Take that high parable for true. </p><p class="line">Ye gods and goddesses 'mong men </p><p class="line">It shall be now as it was then :- </p><p class="line">The earth be saved (O share my faith!) </p><p class="line">By the blest Boys you gave to Death.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">With even these words to your deaf heart </p><p class="line">I eased my secondary smart; </p><p class="line">Then felt ashamed, as they who shout </p><p class="line">When God's own silence is about, </p><p class="line">And turned, that I might hide my head :</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:%">Because there's nothing to be said.</p></div><p class="byline">(From <em>Aunt Sarah and the War</em>.)</p></body></html> · Great War