<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="" class="head">In Memoriam: John Davidson</h1><h1 align="" class="head">i</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">WE watched thy spirit flickering in the dark,</p><p class="line">Like a phantasmal lark</p><p class="line">Fluttering on the moon;</p><p class="line">We knew thine ire</p><p class="line">Like lightning on a lyre,</p><p class="line">Like thunder in the lily throat of June.</p><p class="line">We saw thy discontent like lambent fire,</p><p class="line">Purple and red,</p><p class="line">Smoking and smouldering beneath the pyre</p><p class="line">Of Beauty widowed, and of Joyance dead,</p><p class="line">Thou with a rapier didst reap the rose</p><p class="line">That on Parnassus grows;</p><p class="line">Thou the white brow of Poesie didst scar,</p><p class="line">Lopping her laurels with a scimitar.</p><p class="line">So strange, so fierce, so various, so bright</p><p class="line">Thy wrath, thy woe, thy melody, thy light.</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">ii</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Sweet-bitter was thy life, and bitter-sweet,</p><p class="line">Blown with success, and bloody with defeat,</p><p class="line">Beloved by beauty, and oppressed by care,</p><p class="line">Fevered by passion, frozen by despair.</p><p class="line">Thy fervour would not wait</p><p class="line">The seed within the sod,</p><p class="line">The ripening of Fate,</p><p class="line">The harvesting of God.</p><p class="line">Thy zeal to right the wrong</p><p class="line">Both right and wrong down hurled,</p><p class="line">Wert fain by dint of song</p><p class="line">To build a better world.</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">iii</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">But mortised well, and founded deep,</p><p class="line">The world's divine foundations are;</p><p class="line">The briny tears that mortals weep</p><p class="line">May water lilies on a star,</p><p class="line">And what we sow our souls may reap</p><p class="line">Eternities afar.</p><p class="line">To none our final doom is known,</p><p class="line">As none our primal birth foresaw;</p><p class="line">Yet all things would be overthrown</p><p class="line">By any fault, by any flaw,</p><p class="line">By loosening of a little stone</p><p class="line">In the great Temple of the Law.</p><p class="line">We cannot guess, who cannot see</p><p class="line">Eternity's entelechy;</p><p class="line">And all thy discontent and wrath</p><p class="line">Were but a cobweb in God's path;</p><p class="line">Still moves the Mighty Purpose on</p><p class="line">Through pain to joy, through dusk to dawn.</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">iv</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Wert thou a rebel grappling with the stars</p><p class="line">That swing their swords before the Gate of God;</p><p class="line">How clashed and clanged the bolts and bars,</p><p class="line">With hurtling of thy shoulders broad!</p><p class="line">The round sky shuddered, and the sea</p><p class="line">Plangent reverberated thee!</p><p class="line">Nay, but a bird,</p><p class="line">With futile rage,</p><p class="line">Shrilling a tune,</p><p class="line">Upon the moon,</p><p class="line">Bruising thy wings against a cage,</p><p class="line">Or a wild moth,</p><p class="line">Most vainly wroth,</p><p class="line">That war against the world would wage.</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">v</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Life took some dust within his hands,</p><p class="line">And made it hear and made it see;</p><p class="line">Love rent thy narrow swaddling bands</p><p class="line">And bore thee over seas and lands</p><p class="line">To the Pisgah of Infinity;</p><p class="line">Yet thou art but putrescent dust,</p><p class="line">Blown in creation's frolic breath--</p><p class="line">The fool of love, the toy of lust,</p><p class="line">The dupe of Death.</p><p class="line">Dust on a bit of spinning slag,</p><p class="line">Belched from the furnace of the sun,</p><p class="line">Wouldst dare to raise a rebel flag</p><p class="line">Against the Wise and Mighty One!</p><p class="line">Why doubtest what he has decreed?</p><p class="line">What man can know</p><p class="line">What He may sow</p><p class="line">Who brings a forest from a seed?</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">vi</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">So soon or late the fiercest rebel breath</p><p class="line">Is subjugate to Death.</p><p class="line">Although we would escape</p><p class="line">The grisly shape,</p><p class="line">The visage proud and pale,</p><p class="line">The grey forefinger with the purple nail</p><p class="line">Pointing into the darkness, gross and thick,</p><p class="line">Making the senses sick,</p><p class="line">And the courage quail,</p><p class="line">Yet, be we foolish, be we wise,</p><p class="line">Death in the end will look us in the eyes.</p><p class="line">This is the test</p><p class="line">Of triumph or defeat,</p><p class="line">Of worst and best,</p><p class="line">Of bitter and of sweet;</p><p class="line">This is God's arbiter we all must meet.</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">vii</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And yet, perchance, it was this thought, like flame</p><p class="line">Moved thee too soon to call upon Death's name,</p><p class="line">To call upon his might to save or slay;</p><p class="line">When thou with load of glory and of shame,</p><p class="line">With crowns of rankling thorn, and withered bay,</p><p class="line">Thou with half-finished work, half-ripened fame,</p><p class="line">Went forth and cursed and called him, till he came</p><p class="line">In a swirl of surging waves, in a cloud of spray,</p><p class="line">And in the deep</p><p class="line">Gave thy hot sorrow sleep,</p><p class="line">And in his arms carried thy soul away.</p></div><h1 align="" class="head">viii</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Who, who will blame thee for thy broken sword.</p><p class="line">Or scorn thee for the discords of thy lyre?</p><p class="line">Thou wert a noble singer, and the Lord,</p><p class="line">For a reward,</p><p class="line">Filled thy wild heart with fire.</p><p class="line">It was not strange the cold world should discord</p><p class="line">With thy desire;</p><p class="line">It was not strange a soul so full of woes</p><p class="line">Should seek repose.</p><p class="line">We blame thee not, thy failures we forget,</p><p class="line">Forget the seeming-weak, the seeming-wrong;</p><p class="line">But in our hearts there blooms and blossoms yet</p><p class="line">The sweet, wild, poignant passion of thy song.</p></div></body></html> · Great War