<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">Sonnet.</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">O <span class="smallcaps">ye</span> to whom dear life is still most dear,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Heed not the sirens' soft perfidious song</p><p class="line">That bids you barter, for a brief term here,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Abiding honour! As the martyr-throng</p><p class="line">For love of Christ went stedfast to the stake</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And by faith's rapturous power embraced the flame,</p><p class="line">So, gladly, ye, for your own Country's sake,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Must court the fiery Fates that wound and maim!</p><p class="line">And if on valour's path to victory's end,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Sweet life in one swift flash ye must renounce, --</p><p class="line">Rejoice that your high lot should so transcend</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Man's common doom! The brave can die but once,</p><p class="line">But in your death, thrice-gloriously ye'll die, --</p><p class="line">For England, for men's hearths, and Liberty!</p></div><p class="byline">GRACE E. TOLLEMACHE.<br xmlns:exist="http://exist.sourceforge.net/NS/exist" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"/></p></body></html> · Great War