<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">Summer in England.</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">ON London fell a clearer light; </p><p class="line">Caressing pencils of the sun </p><p class="line">Defined the distances, the white</p><p class="line">Houses, transfigured one by one, </p><p class="line">The " long, unlovely street " impearled. </p><p class="line">O what a sky has walked the world!</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Most happy year! And out of town</p><p class="line">The hay was prosperous, and the wheat; </p><p class="line">The silken harvest climbed the down;</p><p class="line">Moon after moon was heavenly-sweet, </p><p class="line">Stroking the bread within the sheaves, </p><p class="line">Looking, 'twixt apples and their leaves.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And while this rose made round her cup,</p><p class="line">The armies died convulsed; and when </p><p class="line">This chaste young silver sun went up</p><p class="line">Softly, ten thousand shattered men, </p><p class="line">One wet corruption, heaped the plain, </p><p class="line">After a league-long throb of pain.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Flower following tender flower; and birds,</p><p class="line">And berries; and benignant skies </p><p class="line">Made thrive the serried flocks and herds-</p><p class="line">Yonder are men shot through the eyes, </p><p class="line">And children crushed. Love, hide thy face </p><p class="line">From man's unpardonable race.</p></div><p class="line">rend= "italic" A Reply.</p><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Who said "No man hath greater love than this,</p><p class="line">To die to serve his friend ? " </p><p class="line">So these have loved us all unto the end. </p><p class="line">Chide thou no more, O thou unsacrificed! </p><p class="line">The soldier dying dies upon a kiss, </p><p class="line">The very kiss of Christ.</p></div><p class="byline">Alice Meynell.</p></body></html> · Great War