<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">"I Have No Ring"</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">I <span class="smallcaps">watch</span> and listen with a dreadful fear,</p><p class="line">I wait and long and tremble in a breath;</p><p class="line">Though he is gone to fight, yet is he near;</p><p class="line">I have him always though he meet with Death:</p><p class="line">In the lone night time when my eyes are dim</p><p class="line">I cry with terror, yet my heart will sing;</p><p class="line">I long, I long with sickness, yet with dread:</p><p class="line">My fear is double -- more, far more, for him</p><p class="line">Who not yet lives than him who may be dead:</p><p class="line">I carry that which masters everything:</p><p class="line">And yet -- to have his face and not his name,</p><p class="line">To be so loved, so longed for, yet -- my shame!</p><p class="line">Gladness and dread alike my love to sting....</p><p class="line">I bear his burden -- but -- I have no ring.</p></div><p class="byline">-- Bernard Gilbert.</p></body></html> · Great War