<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">To S. K., Killed in Action. </h1><h1 align="smallcap" class="head">(Written by His First Teacher).</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">YOU, killed in action, leading men! </p><p class="line">I hardly yet believe it true:</p><p class="line">For me you're still the boy of ten,</p><p class="line">Blue-eyed and curly-haired, I knew.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">You looked so gentle and so mild,</p><p class="line">I wondered if you'd play your part,</p><p class="line">For schoolboy life is rough : you smiled,</p><p class="line">And straightway captured every heart.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">You played your part: you wrote your name</p><p class="line">Upon our simple annals clear,</p><p class="line">In field and form-room still the same,</p><p class="line">A knight without reproach or fear.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">We saw you go from strength to strength,</p><p class="line">Your praises loud on every lip,</p><p class="line">Until you crowned the whole at length</p><p class="line">By leaving with a Scholarship.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">The years passed by, and Oxford took</p><p class="line">The charge your Public School laid down;</p><p class="line">One happy year, and you forsook</p><p class="line">For duty called-the magic gown.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Of course you were the first to go: </p><p class="line">You never were the sort to shirk.</p><p class="line">That was no time for books, and so </p><p class="line">You turned to more important work.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And is this all ? Was all in vain</p><p class="line">The life that you so early gave? </p><p class="line">And only, swept by wind and rain, </p><p class="line">Another British soldier's grave?</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">We thought that radiant soul was meant </p><p class="line">For greater things: we should be sure </p><p class="line">o life is short, thus nobly spent, </p><p class="line">No hero's death is premature.</p></div><p class="byline">W. Snow.</p>(The <em>Spectator</em>, May 15th, 1915</body></html> · Great War