<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="" class="head">The Harvest</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">SHADOWLESS lies the land</p><p class="line">Under the sun.</p><p class="line">Only the poplars stand</p><p class="line">With moveless boughs in the heat</p><p class="line">That broods o'er the blackened wheat</p><p class="line">And the ground so hardly won.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">No other tree in the waste.</p><p class="line">They only stand</p><p class="line">Where the straight white road is traced</p><p class="line">Athwart the land.</p><p class="line">And ever under the sky</p><p class="line">Do the slow-winged birds go by—</p><p class="line">The slow black birds of prey</p><p class="line">That wait but the close of day</p><p class="line">For the night to bring them food.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">The curse of the heat is here.</p><p class="line">And the curse of blood.</p><p class="line">Cold-lipped, and with eyes of fear,</p><p class="line">'Neath the sun's flood</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">More Songs by the Fighting Men</p><p class="line">Wanders the spirit of death;</p><p class="line">And e'en in the burning noon is an icy breath</p><p class="line">And the red of the west is to me like the redness of</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">blood.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">The village is still as the heat.</p><p class="line">From the ruined houses start</p><p class="line">The rats across the street.—</p><p class="line">There is never another sound.</p><p class="line">For the guns are silent to-day,</p><p class="line">And the endless lines of men that are bound</p><p class="line">For the place of death and the nameless mound</p><p class="line">Have taken another way.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">At the end of the ruined street</p><p class="line">Roodless the church yet stands</p><p class="line">To the God men praise with their lips</p><p class="line">While they mock Him with their hands;</p><p class="line">With hands that have scrawled for sport</p><p class="line">Their jests on the altar-stone,</p><p class="line">And their ribald words on the lips of Christ,</p><p class="line">The marred Christ hanging alone.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Who has measured pain.</p><p class="line">And who has a plumb for that sea</p><p class="line">Where the soul shall know again</p><p class="line">Its own immensity?</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">For the voice of the mind is dumb,</p><p class="line">But the voice of the soul is heard.</p><p class="line">Where the wild dark waters are come</p><p class="line">And the face of man's sky is blurred.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Who shall say "Lo here</p><p class="line">Shall the glory of war be found.</p><p class="line">That a nation arose without fear</p><p class="line">And smote her foe to the ground</p><p class="line">For the wrong that he dared to dream.</p><p class="line">And the hell that he wrought on earth;</p><p class="line">That she pressed after Honour's gleam</p><p class="line">Though it led to a land of dearth"?</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Who has measured wrong.</p><p class="line">And who shall assign it a bond?</p><p class="line">Where the scornful might of the strong</p><p class="line">And the cry of the weak be found—</p><p class="line">Say, is the tale complete?</p><p class="line">Ah! myriad wrongs spring up</p><p class="line">Where one has set its feet,</p><p class="line">And the earth is a poisoned cup</p><p class="line">Where the goodly wine brings death,</p><p class="line">And one drop of venom there</p><p class="line">Shall poison- the very breath</p><p class="line">Of the winds in the upper air.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">What of the men who died</p><p class="line">Stout-hearted and steadfast-eyed</p><p class="line">For the good they might not share</p><p class="line">And the goal to them denied?</p><p class="line">For the lamp they strove to bear</p><p class="line">Should light another's way,</p><p class="line">And the boon that they might not share</p><p class="line">Is the boon we hold to-day.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">What of the god-like men</p><p class="line">Who lie in the dust to-day</p><p class="line">For the dreams that we hold so light</p><p class="line">And the hope that we fling away?</p><p class="line">Ah! shall we not vex their sleep,</p><p class="line">We men of the lesser mould.</p><p class="line">Who sully the name they bled to keep.</p><p class="line">And the honour they died to hold?</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">A thousand ages ago</p><p class="line">Man fought with the axe of stone</p><p class="line">That the many might seize the thing they loved</p><p class="line">From the few, and hold it alone.</p><p class="line">For the will of the strong was law</p><p class="line">And the right of the weak was death</p><p class="line">When man was one with the beasts of the earth</p><p class="line">And battled with them for breath.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And to-day with their coward lips</p><p class="line">Men prate of love in their creeds.</p><p class="line">And a thousand times to-day</p><p class="line">Do they spurn her with their deeds.</p><p class="line">For we talk of the law of truth</p><p class="line">While our God is the law of might,</p><p class="line">And the will of the strongest there</p><p class="line">Is the thing we hold as right.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">What have we gained with the years,</p><p class="line">But the greater power to lie?</p><p class="line">We, who speak of the truth.</p><p class="line">Smooth-voiced and with side-long eye;</p><p class="line">Better the axe of stone</p><p class="line">And the feet on the weakest throat</p><p class="line">Than the lying lips and the coward thrust</p><p class="line">And the stealthy eyes that gloat.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Now for the one's desire</p><p class="line">Shall the many be crucified</p><p class="line">On the cross of a lawless power</p><p class="line">With the nails of a soulless pride.</p><p class="line">And the wrong goes deeper yet.</p><p class="line">Aye, deep as the springs of life,</p><p class="line">And has blossomed out at the 'hest of pride</p><p class="line">In the deadly flower of strife.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And nothing shall purge the land</p><p class="line">Where the curse of sin has stood</p><p class="line">But the purge of the whetted steel</p><p class="line">And the drench of blood.</p><p class="line">While perchance at the end shall Peace</p><p class="line">Her impotent pinions spread</p><p class="line">O'er the ruined home and the smoking land</p><p class="line">And the blank eyes of our dead.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Hark!—through the lazy air</p><p class="line">Comes the sound of guns again.</p><p class="line">Once more man reaps with a sickle of fire</p><p class="line">The harvest of the slain.</p></div><p>PONT D'ESSARS, FRANCE.</p></body></html> · Great War