<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">Ode to a Young Man Killed in Flanders. <br xmlns:exist="http://exist.sourceforge.net/NS/exist" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"/></h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">CAN it be true that thou art dead</p><p class="line">In the hour of thy youth, in the day of thy strength ?</p><p class="line">Must I believe thy soul has fled</p><p class="line">Through Heaven's length?</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">A scholar wast thou, learn'd in lore,</p><p class="line">Poet was written in thine eyes;</p><p class="line">Thou ne'er vast meant for bloody War</p><p class="line">To seize in prize.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Yet when they asked thee, Ho! what dostthou bring?</p><p class="line">Thou gav'st thyself,</p><p class="line">Thou gav'st thy body, gav'st thy soul;</p><p class="line">Thou gav'st thyself, one consecrated whole</p><p class="line">To sacrificial torture for thy King.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">O lovely youth, slaughtered at Life's new Dawn</p><p class="line">In virgin purity thou liest dead, </p><p class="line">And slaughtered with thy sons unborn,</p><p class="line">With thee unwed.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Sleep on, pure youth, sleep at Earth's soothingbreast. </p><p class="line">No king's sarcophagus was e'er so fine </p><p class="line">As that poor shallow soldier's grave of thine, </p><p class="line">Where all ungarlanded thou tak'st thy rest.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Vengeance thou askest not, but to avenge </p><p class="line">Many shall come-ah! many shall be slain </p><p class="line">That thy rich sacrifice be not in vain. </p><p class="line">Then from the blood spilt shall the </p><p class="line">Arts arise Gaining fresh glories by thy sacrifice; </p><p class="line">And this shall be requital and revenge.</p></div><p class="byline">Dyneley Hussey".</p>(The <em>Poetry Review</em></body></html> · Great War