<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="" class="head">Requiescat</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">HOW young and bright he was, and when he</p><p class="line">laughed</p><p class="line">The air around seemed sharing in his joy;</p><p class="line">Fair was the world to him, nor spot nor stain</p><p class="line">Of all its hidden ugliness had laid</p><p class="line">A mark upon his face (that mark that sears</p><p class="line">And brands the souls that know it but too well);</p><p class="line">But all that's lovely in it lay beneath</p><p class="line">The wonder that shone shyly in his eyes.</p><p class="line">A child of Nature he, of woods and sunlit ways.</p><p class="line">Of rolling meadows where the air was sweet</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">With new-born blossoms and the scent of hay;</p><p class="line">Of hills and valleys, laughing streams and lakes</p><p class="line">Where rustling reeds their whispered secrets told.</p><p class="line">All these he knew and loved, they were his friends,</p><p class="line">His sole companions, and through them he learnt</p><p class="line">To know his mother Nature; all her moods</p><p class="line">Diverse and strange he learnt them one by one;</p><p class="line">Her summer laughter and her autumn tears.</p><p class="line">Her seeming winter harshness and the sweet</p><p class="line">Serene repentance of her early spring.</p><p class="line">Life was his love, and in her warm soft arms</p><p class="line">He freedom found from care, repose and peace.</p><p class="line">And finding knew that it sufficed.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And then came War to claim him, dragged him forth.</p><p class="line">Forth from his quiet world, and flung him down</p><p class="line">Bewildered and amazed, yet unafraid.</p><p class="line">The merest cypher in that crowded train.</p><p class="line">So hour by hour the meanness of War,</p><p class="line">And all its horrors, petty hates and sins</p><p class="line">Raged round his struggling head, until the day</p><p class="line">A wandering bullet found him, and Death took</p><p class="line">Unto himself what Life once held so dear.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">His face was smiling when they picked him up</p><p class="line">As though he'd learnt his Mother's last great secret</p><p class="line">And in learning found all well.</p></div><p>No. 7 STATIONARY HOSPITAL, B.E.F., FRANCE.</p></body></html> · Great War