<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">To the Memory</h1><h1 align="center" class="head">of</h1><h1 align="center" class="head">Field-Marshal Earl Roberts</h1><h1 align="center" class="head">of Kandahar and Pretoria.</h1><p class="inline-note" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">[Born, 1832. Died on service at the Front, November 141h, 1914.]</p><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">He</span> died, as soldiers die, amid the strife,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Mindful of England in his latest prayer;</p><p class="line">God, of His love, would have so fair a life</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:12%">Crowned with a death as fair.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">He might not lead the battle as of old,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">But, as of old, among his own he went,</p><p class="line">Breathing a faith that never once grew cold,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:12%">A courage still unspent.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">So was his end; and, in that hour, across</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The face of War a wind of silence blew,</p><p class="line">And bitterest foes paid tribute to the loss</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:12%">Of a great heart and true.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">But we who loved him, what have we to lay</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">For sign of worship on his warrior-bier?</p><p class="line">What homage, could his lips but speak to-day,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:12%">Would he have held most dear?</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Not grief, as for a life untimely reft;</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Not vain regret for counsel given in vain;</p><p class="line">Not pride of that high record he has left,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:12%">Peerless and pure of stain;</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">But service of our lives to keep her free,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The land he served; a pledge above his grave</p><p class="line">To give her even such a gift as he,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:12%">The soul of loyalty, gave.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">That oath we plight, as now the trumpets swell</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">His requiem, and the men-at-arms stand mute,</p><p class="line">And through the mist the guns he loved so well</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:12%">Thunder a last salute!</p></div><p class="byline">OWEN SEAMAN.<br xmlns:exist="http://exist.sourceforge.net/NS/exist" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"/></p></body></html> · Great War