The Ballad of St. Barbara and other verses/For a War Memorial
FOR A WAR MEMORIAL
(Suggested Inscription probably not selected by the Committee.)
The hucksters haggle in the martThe cars and carts go by;Senates and schools go droning on;For dead things cannot die.
A storm stooped on the place of tombsWith bolts to blast and rive;But these be names of many menThe lightning found alive.
If usurers rule and rights decayAnd visions view once moreGreat Carthage like a golden shellGape hollow on the shore,
Still to the last of crumbling timeUpon this stone be readHow many men of England diedTo prove they were not dead.