<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="" class="head">Death, the Child</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">ONCE in pain I reviled</p><p class="line">The greybeard Death</p><p class="line">Who grudged me breath,</p><p class="line">And lo, from the Tomb of Space,</p><p class="line">He came to my torture-place--</p><p class="line">Came and smiled;</p><p class="line">O God, and he had the hands, and the face,</p><p class="line">The tender limbs, and the slender grace,</p><p class="line">And the heart of a child.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Death of the dimpled hands, death of the rosy cheek,</p><p class="line">Wilt give us all we have lost, and all that we vainly seek.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Seeds of unripened hopes thy fingers hold,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Wilt quicken the dead.</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">To white and red,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And green and gold,</p><p class="line">And flickering passion will flame, and faded promise unfold.</p><p class="line">What though our careworn lives may bitter and barren be--</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Bitter and cold,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Barren and old,</p><p class="line">As the tides of an Arctic sea?</p><p class="line">What matter! Thy heart is young and bold,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Thy wings are strong and free.</p><p class="line">And health, and wisdom, and wonder are doled</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">By thy childish charity--</p><p class="line">Wisdom, and Wonder, and gleams</p><p class="line">Of a glory new,</p><p class="line">Rest, and Sleep, and Dreams,</p><p class="line">And a Garden drenched with dew;</p><p class="line">Till Life in verity seems</p><p class="line">But a mist that thy Smile comes through.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Once I gazed on Death, and he looked in my face and smiled;</p><p class="line">And now I fear him not, for he is only a child.</p></div></body></html> · Great War