<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">A Harrow Grave in Flanders</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">Here</span> in the marshland, past the battered bridge,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">One of a hundred grains untimely sown,</p><p class="line">Here, with his comrades of the hard-won ridge</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:10%">He rests, unknown.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">His horoscope had seemed so plainly drawn,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">School triumphs, earned apace in work and play;</p><p class="line">Friendships at will; then love's delightful dawn</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:10%">And mellowing day.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Home fostering hope; some service to the State;</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Benignant age; then the long tryst to keep</p><p class="line">Where in the yew-tree shadow congregate</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:10%">His fathers sleep.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Was here the one thing needful to distil</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">From life's alembic, through this holier fate,</p><p class="line">The man's essential soul, the hero-will?</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:10%">We ask; and wait.</p></div><p class="byline">-- Crewe.</p></body></html> · Great War