<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">The Defenders</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">His</span> wage of rest at nightfall still</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">He takes, who sixty years has known</p><p class="line">Of ploughing over Cotsall hill</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And keeping trim the Cotsall stone.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">He meditates the dusk, and sees</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Folds of his wonted shepherdings</p><p class="line">And lands of stubble and tall trees</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Becoming insubstantial things.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">And does he see on Cotsall hill --</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Thrown even to the central shire --</p><p class="line">The funnelled shapes forbidding still</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The stranger from his cottage fire?</p></div><p class="byline">-- John Drinkwater.</p></body></html> · Great War