<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="" class="head">Belgium, 1914</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="subhead">I</p><div class="stanza"><p class="line">THE lithe flames flicker through the veil of night,</p><p class="line">Licking with bitter tongue; and soon the dawn</p><p class="line">Will come, and gaunt and black against the white</p><p class="line">Cool sky will loom a smoking home, forlorn</p><p class="line">Of all the joy and peace that once was there.</p><p class="line">The pleading, pitiful dead lie mute and cold</p><p class="line">And all untended still. The fields are bare</p><p class="line">Of the young green, the parent of the gold.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">O little land, great-hearted, who didst give</p><p class="line">Thine all for sake of others' liberty.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Knowing the cost, nor shrinking at the thought,</p><p class="line">Be sure that thy immortal name shall live</p><p class="line">Writ large in thine own ashes. Men shall cry,</p><p class="line">"This was a nation marvellously wrought!"</p></div></div><div class="stanza"><p class="subhead">II</p><div class="stanza"><p class="line">There came a voice from out the darkness crying—</p><p class="line">A pleading voice, the voice of one in thrall—</p><p class="line">"Come, ye who pass—oh, heed ye not my sighing?</p><p class="line">Come and deliver! Hear, oh hear my call!</p><p class="line">For when the invader stood before my gate</p><p class="line">Demanding passage through with haughty tone,</p><p class="line">A voice cried loud, 'Wilt thou endure this fate?</p><p class="line">Better have death than live when honour's</p><p class="line">flown!'</p><p class="line">And so my children now lie slain by him</p><p class="line">I had not wronged; with strife my land is riven;</p><p class="line">Dishonoured here I lie with fettered limb.</p><p class="line">To desecration all my shrines are given.</p><p class="line">And nought remains but bondage drear and grim. .</p><p class="line">God! Is there any justice under heaven?"</p></div></div></body></html> · Great War