<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">The Gift</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">His</span> eyes are bright and eager, with the brightness of the sun,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:10%">(England, he gives them you)</p><p class="line">His hands are strong for climbing and his feet are swift to run,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:10%">(England, he gives them you)</p><p class="line">He has knowledge of the meadows, in the dreamy autumn days,</p><p class="line">The brown hill, and the gold hill, and the green forgotten ways,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:10%">(But he leaves them now for you).</p><p class="line">There's a certain ancient city where he once was free and young,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:10%">(But he leaves it now for you),</p><p class="line">Where Oxford tales are spoken, and Oxford ways are sung,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:10%">(But he leaves them now for you)</p><p class="line">And his heart is often weary, for that dear old river shore,</p><p class="line">And he thinks a little sadly, of the days that come no more,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:10%">(But he gives them up for you).</p><p class="line">If his dust is one day lying, in an unfamiliar land,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:10%">(England, he went for you)</p><p class="line">Oh, England, sometimes think of him, of thousands, only one,</p><p class="line">In the dawning, or the noonday, or the setting of the sun,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:10%">(As once he thought of you).</p><p class="line">For to him and many like him, there seemed no other way</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:10%">(England, he asked not why)</p><p class="line">The giving up of all things, for ever and for aye,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:10%">(England, he asked not why)</p><p class="line">And so he goes unshrinking, from those dearest paths of home,</p><p class="line">For he knows, great-hearted England, let whatever fate may come</p><p class="line">You will <em>never</em> let him die!</p></div><p class="byline">-- H. Rex Freston.<br xmlns:exist="http://exist.sourceforge.net/NS/exist" xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"/> (Killed in action in France, Jan. 24, 1916.)</p></body></html> · Great War