<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">"Dick."-May, 1915</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">HE lived! deep in my heart I held him,</p><p class="line">Son, all my own-just for a little while;</p><p class="line">Fond mem'ry cherishes his doings,</p><p class="line">His cheerful hurry, and his slow, shy smile.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">How fled the years! How vainly I begrudged them,</p><p class="line">Their claim upon the hours I craved as mine;</p><p class="line">Yet given that he might be preparéd</p><p class="line">To take his place, when came the hour, the sign.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">There came, oh all too soon, the call of Empire;</p><p class="line">Give back your sons, ye mothers of the race!</p><p class="line">Among the first my son responded, gladly;</p><p class="line">And proudly I, his mother, gave him place.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Gone were the years I watched him; in the darkness</p><p class="line">I strove to picture this, his unsought life;</p><p class="line">Would courage hold! nay, could the monsterterror</p><p class="line">Rise up and wound him in this hellish strife?</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And whiles I prayed-as mothers do in secret-</p><p class="line">Although their hands are busy otherwise;</p><p class="line">And whiles I grieved, as mothers must-in secret,</p><p class="line">Yet none who knew me did my fears surprise.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">He died! ah yes, he fell in action,</p><p class="line">My boy who gave his life that truth mightlive; </p><p class="line">And though my feet must ever tread more softly,</p><p class="line">Since him I see no more and yet must live;- </p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">He lives! deep in my heart I know it:</p><p class="line">The life he knows is not of earthly span, </p><p class="line">It is the life by sacrifice attainéd,</p><p class="line">Of God ordained ere yet the world began.</p></div><p class="byline">A. M. Northwood.</p></body></html> · Great War