Flower of youth, poems in war time/The Old Soldier
For other versions of this work, see The Old Soldier.
THE OLD SOLDIER
(14th November 1914)
Lest the young soldiers be strange in Heaven,
God bids the old soldier they all adored
Come to Him and wait for them, clean, new-shriven,
A happy door-keeper in the House of the Lord.
Lest it abash them, the great new splendour,
Lest they affright them, the new robes clean,
God sets an old face there, long-tried and tender,
A word and a hand-clasp as they troop in.
My boys! he welcomes them and Heaven is homely;
He, their great Captain in days gone o'er.
Dear is the face of a friend, honest and comely,
As they come home from the war and he at the door.