War, the Liberator, and Other Pieces/From Home. November 13, 1916
FROM HOME
To the Men who fell at Beaumont-Hamel
November 13th, 1916
THE pale sun woke in the eastern sky
And a veil of mist was drawn
Over the faces of death and fame
When you went up in the dawn.
With never a thought of fame or death,
Only the work to do,
When you went over the top, my friends,
And I not there with you.
And a veil of mist was drawn
Over the faces of death and fame
When you went up in the dawn.
With never a thought of fame or death,
Only the work to do,
When you went over the top, my friends,
And I not there with you.
The veil is rent with a rifle-flash
And shows me plain to see
Battle and bodies of men that lived
And fought along with me.
Oh God! it would not have been so hard
If I’d been in it too,
But you are lying stiff, my friends,
And I not there with you.
And shows me plain to see
Battle and bodies of men that lived
And fought along with me.
Oh God! it would not have been so hard
If I’d been in it too,
But you are lying stiff, my friends,
And I not there with you.
So here I sit in a pleasant room
By a comfortable fire,
With every thing that a man could want,
But not the heart’s desire.
So I sit thinking and dreaming still,
A dream that won’t come true,
Of you in the German trench, my friends,
And I not there with you.
By a comfortable fire,
With every thing that a man could want,
But not the heart’s desire.
So I sit thinking and dreaming still,
A dream that won’t come true,
Of you in the German trench, my friends,
And I not there with you.