<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="" class="head">The Bells <br xmlns:exist="http://exist.sourceforge.net/NS/exist" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"/> [In Germany church bells are being melted down<br xmlns:exist="http://exist.sourceforge.net/NS/exist" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"/> for war purposes.]</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="subhead">The Bells:</p><p class="line">WHAT have we done</p><p class="line">That sacrilegious hands should tear us down</p><p class="line">From the high belfry above the little town,</p><p class="line">Whence now for fifty years to King and clown</p><p class="line">We speak of life and death? What have we done?</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="subhead">First Bell:</p><p class="line">We rang for the coming of souls to earth.</p><p class="line">We rang the joy of children's birth;</p><p class="line">We rocked and carolled the young life in,</p><p class="line">A holy carol to ward off sin.</p><p class="line">Our notes flew over the grey old town</p><p class="line">In a helter-skelter, by the wind blown</p><p class="line">Higher and higher, and mingled at last</p><p class="line">With the songs of souls whose purging is past;</p><p class="line">And then together we and they</p><p class="line">To the great Maker of Life would pray</p><p class="line">That the life might be blessed that w^as born that</p><p class="line">day.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="subhead">Second Bell:</p><p class="line">Sadly we tolled the old life out</p><p class="line">That was done with laughter and tears and doubt.</p><p class="line">Silverly clear, when the moon sailed by</p><p class="line">And the tides of life throbbed stormy and high.</p><p class="line">We sang of faith and nerve and thew</p><p class="line">To meet the devil and wrestle through.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="subhead">Third Bell:</p><p class="line">We rang of peace and we rang good-will</p><p class="line">On the Christ-child's day, so ghostly-still;</p><p class="line">When, dumbed with snow, the village street</p><p class="line">No answer made to passing feet.</p><p class="line">Earth stopped her breathing, knowing then</p><p class="line">The seed of God sown among men.</p><p class="line">We rocked the steeple on Easter day</p><p class="line">When Christ the Spirit broke the clay</p><p class="line">In glory of yellow daffodils</p><p class="line">And holy laughter of dancing rills.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="subhead">The Bells:</p><p class="line">O men who tear us from our place on high</p><p class="line">To make us messengers of hate and death,</p><p class="line">Thus you uproot the holy lily-flower</p><p class="line">And hug a dry and tinkling husk that holds</p><p class="line">No spirit essential and no soul of grace.</p><p class="line">Thus you tear out the heart from Sharon's rose.</p><p class="line">And only thorns remain to make a crown</p><p class="line">To lacerate afresh the brow of Christ.</p><p class="line">The tower remains, the shell that th' outward eye</p><p class="line">May see and reverence as a God's abode.</p><p class="line">But O ye happy ones whose inward eye</p><p class="line">Not unillumined is, pass by and say:</p><p class="line">Here lies the clay inanimate by fire;</p><p class="line">Here stands the empty stall that has no choir;</p><p class="line">Here die the lives from which the God has fled.</p><p class="line">Behold! The Christ steals by with bleeding head.</p></div></body></html> · Great War