<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="" class="head">Homeward</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">TO the old friends and faces,</p><p class="line">To the old life again.</p><p class="line">To often dreamed-of places,</p><p class="line">Pleasant in sun or rain:</p><p class="line">For home my face is set;</p><p class="line">Home! Madly goes my heart</p><p class="line">With calling up each minute</p><p class="line">Those visions none forget,</p><p class="line">All that the word has in it—</p><p class="line">For each man things apart.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">We watched our land go from us.</p><p class="line">The sea stretched far, unknown;</p><p class="line">To all it glowed with promise.</p><p class="line">I watch the sea alone.</p><p class="line">Some lie within its sound.</p><p class="line">Scarce past its edge of foam,</p><p class="line">Yet hear it surging never.</p><p class="line">And some their grave have found</p><p class="line">Far from the sea for ever,</p><p class="line">The sea that takes us home.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">I hear you, waves that glisten,</p><p class="line">I see your path for me.</p><p class="line">Maybe the dead can listen.</p><p class="line">See more than I can see:</p><p class="line">Not for the guns, their sound</p><p class="line">Heard muffled through the loam.</p><p class="line">Nor noise of sea or heavens.</p><p class="line">Not see the trees around.</p><p class="line">No! not the grass-roots even.</p><p class="line">But sounds and sights of home.</p></div></body></html> · Great War